Fwd: Monkey genome project

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http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21548359-30417,00.html

Monkeying with genes to learn human nature

 

- Leigh Dayton, Science writer

- April 13, 2007

 

FIRST it was humans; then it was chimpanzees. Now rhesus macaque monkeys

have had their DNA ordered and scrutinised, bit by tiny bit.

 

The so-called sequence of the monkey's genome promises to reveal key genetic

differences between people and their primate cousins.

 

Medical scientists predict the newly sequenced macaque genome will benefit

research in fields as diverse as HIV-AIDS and ageing.

 

" We want to know what makes us human, " said Richard Gibbs, director of the

Baylor College of the Medicine Human Genome Sequencing Centre in Houston,

Texas, and leader of the consortium that detailed its findings in five

reports in the journal Science.

 

The Rhesus Macaque Genome Sequencing and Analysis Consortium is a

collaboration of more than 170 scientists from 35 institutions. The team not

only sequenced the genome of the macaque (Macaca mulatta), they also

compared it to the human genome, completed in 2001, and that of chimps (Pan

troglodytes), published two years ago.

 

Unravelling the chimp genome provided tantalising hints about the

differences between people and our closest relative.

 

Since the macaque diverged from the path leading to humans and chimps about

25 million years ago, it will provide insights not previously possible about

when and where evolutionary changes happened.

 

" It allows us to learn what has been added or deleted in primate evolution

from the rhesus macaque to the chimpanzee to the human, " said Dr Gibbs, an

evolutionary geneticist.

 

So far, the scientists have found that macaque genes are about 97.5 per cent

similar to those of chimps and humans. More than 98 per cent of chimp and

human DNA is the same.

 

A comparison of the genomes has also turned up 130 human-specific sections

of DNA that may affect 58 of the roughly 20,000 human genes.

 

The team also discovered about 200 genes that showed evidence of " positive

selection " in evolution, marking the good places to look for differences

among primate species.

 

Among them are the genes critical to hair formation, immune response, some

proteins and sperm-egg fusion.

 

The consortium also found cases where a normal macaque protein resembled a

diseased one in people: for instance, one linked to phenylketonuria, a

disease that may lead to mental retardation and brain damage.

 

Primates include humans, apes, monkeys and prosimians -- little animals like

lemurs that survive only on the island of Madagascar, and are the most

ancient members of the primate family tree.

 

The primate line diverged from a common ancestor roughly 83 million years

ago. The next primates off the sequencing rank include orang-utans, gibbons,

marmosets and baboons.

 

Work on the gorilla genome is already under way.