Dog DNA Reveals Man's Link With Best Friend

Rough draft of canine genetic structure completed

Thursday, September 25, 2003

(2:18 PM ET) (18:18 GMT)

The Associated Press

The dog is much more genetically similar to humans than is the mouse, even though mice and humans are closer together on the tree of evolution. All mammals, at one point, had a common ancestor. But dogs are known to have diverged toward an independent species about 95 million years ago. The mouse and humans both diverged about 87 million years ago, making mice closer to humans in time.

WASHINGTON -- AP
Man's best friend, in this case a male poodle, is genetically more similar to humans than is the mouse, a more commonly used laboratory animal, according to researchers who have completed the first rough draft sequence of the genes of a dog.

Since the start in recent years of intense genetic sequencing, more than 150 species, mostly bacteria, have been completed, but the study appearing this week in the journal Science is the first for a companion animal.

A standard size poodle named Shadow, the family pet of gene researcher J. Craig Venter, provided the specimen that researchers at The Institute for Genomic Research and the Center for Advancement of Genomics used to sequence the canine genes.

"Shadow is now one of history's most valuable dogs," said Venter, founder of the both institutions and leader of one of the two teams that first sequenced the human genome.

* What about cats?

(More: CNN.com Health)
2003 © The Associated Press.

Dan