Ars Technica: The PC enthusiast's resource

Ars Technica: The PC enthusiast's resource Posted 12/4/2002 - 10:30PM, by zAmboni
In news that rivals the completion of the Human Genome Project, researchers have revealed the first high quality public sequence of the mouse genome. Some researchers believe the mouse genome is more exciting than the human genome. Why? Mainly because libraries full of research have been conducted with mice, and mice are currently being used to study human diseases and basic biology. Needless to say, it is a bit tougher to do the same experimentation on humans.

Early analyses confirm preliminary estimates on the similarity between the mouse and human genomes. Ninety-nine percent of human DNA matches that of mice, and the two genomes both contain an estimated 30,000 genes. Only 300 of the mice genes have no counterpart in the human genome and vice versa.

Probably the most interesting finding, to me at least, is that many non-coding regions of DNA (what many news outlets like to erroneously call "junk DNA"), are conserved between humans and mice. I personally think the non-coding regions are very important in gene regulation, and contain the information on what makes mice, mice and men, men. The journal Nature has put together information on the arrival of the mouse genome here.