A rchive Date
[ 07-06-2000 ]
Category
[ Science ]
sub-Categoy
[ Biotechnology ]
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http://www.msnbc.com/news/371929.asp
Genome of fruit fly deciphered
Advance puts scientists closer to mapping human gene code
While a fruit fly cell has just 13,600 genes compared to a human's 70,000, only about 10 percent of them are really different, said researcher Dr. Gerald Rubin. .
By Charlene Laino
MSNBC
WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 - We're a step closer to understanding why we are who we are. Scientists announced Friday that they have deciphered the fruit fly's genetic blueprint ? one of the first steps toward figuring out how human genes interact to code for everything from our eye color to our propensity for certain diseases.
THE FRUIT FLY - known scientifically as Drosophila melanogaster ? is considered the premier animal for learning about our own inherited traits, said Dr. Gerald Rubin of the Drosophila Genome Project Group at the University of California, Berkeley.
While a fruit fly cell has just 13,600 genes compared to a human's 70,000, only about 10 percent of them are really different, he said. "That makes this a true milestone for science, getting us a huge step closer to decoding the human genome."
Dr. Edward Lewis, of the California Institute of Technology, agreed. "This is really a big deal. We have been moving toward this for a long time." With 90 percent of the genes between fruit flies and humans similar, the new findings give important insight into both species, Rubin said. In fact, genes linked to diseases ranging from Alzheimer's to cancer matched up in both animals, he found.
THE GENE RACE
Rubin's feat also gives new credence to a controversial "shotgun" approach to deciphering the human genetic code embraced by J. Craig Venter, head of Celera Genomics Corporation in Rockville, Md. The shotgun approach uses banks of computers to piece together the genetic sequences that make up the double helix of DNA. Then, the DNA is randomly chopped and assembled back together like a puzzle.
"For the first time, an independent group has used the shotgun method to decipher a genome," Rubin said here at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The Berkeley scientist had deciphered about one fourth of the fruit fly's genome in 1995 when Venter proposed that he switch to his approach.
Recently, Celera announced that they had sequenced 90 percent of the human genome, equivalent to about 97 percent of all human genes.
The company said it expected to be finished with its sequencing later this year, in advance of the project being undertaken by the federal National Center for Human Genome Research While Rubin would not comment on which approach he thought to be better, he said that Celera's approach allowed his team to unravel the code "much faster than we had predicted."
NEXT STEPS
Venter said that he and Dr. Francis Collins, head of the federal project, are talking about shaking hands and sharing data. "It hasn't happened yet, but we are optimistic," he said.
In the study, Rubin's team used potent gene-sequencing computers to decipher more than 99 percent of the fruit fly's genes. The next big step - for all species - is determining what the genes do and how they interact. The function of only about half of the fruit fly genes are known, Rubin said. |
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