WHAT do pangolins, sloths and gibbons have in common? They are all in line to have their genomes sequenced.
Last week the National Human Genome Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, announced a diverse list of target species that includes nine mammals: the pangolin, 13-lined ground squirrel, megabat, microbat, tree shrew, hyrax, sloth, bushbaby and northern white-cheeked gibbon.
The idea is that by comparing the human genome to mammals that evolved from the same distant ancestor, we can identify shared or conserved DNA sequences. Conserved sequences have survived in different species because they have an important function – at least that’s the theory (¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ, 5 June 2004, p 18). For the purpose of comparison, only rough, low-quality drafts of the genomes are needed.
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The gibbon was chosen for a different reason. Its DNA appears to undergo 10 times as many gene rearrangements as other primates. Because such rearrangements are also common in patients with cancer and other diseases, a deeper understanding of why they occur in gibbons could reveal what causes them in diseases too.
