WHAT other pets does Craig Venter have? That鈥檚 the question researchers are asking after the institutions he funds published the genome of his pet poodle, Shadow.
Venter made his name by trying to sequence the human and mouse genome ahead of the public projects. This time, however, there鈥檚 no dispute that his team is the first to sequence the dog. And unlike the previous occasions, the team is the first to acknowledge that what they have published is only a rough draft, which covers only about 80 per cent of the dog genome and has millions of gaps.
But the sequencing team argues that even a rough genome can reveal a great deal, and that it is better to have a draft of many species rather than a quality version of a few.
Advertisement
The work was done by The Institute for Genomic Research and The Center for the Advancement of Genomics, both in Rockville, Maryland, and both founded by Venter. 快猫短视频s used the shotgun method, where the entire genome is cut into bits. These are sequenced and then computers try to put all the pieces back together. To fill in gaps and correct mistakes, this process has to be repeated several times. Yet the dog sequence only has 1.5 times 鈥渃overage鈥�, whereas 10 times was the gold standard for our genome.
This quick-and-dirty approach still revealed 18,473 dog genes with a counterpart among the 24,567 human genes identified so far (Science, vol 301, p 1898). The analysis also shows that dogs and humans have more similarities than humans and mice do, even though dogs branched off earlier from our common ancestor.
The dog draft will be made freely available, unlike Venter鈥檚 human and mouse genome sequences. But Shadow will soon be left in the shade. A publicly funded sequence for the boxer dog, with 6.5 times coverage, is expected within months.