Newly deciphered chicken genome should shed light on human DNA

[Guest guest]

Newly deciphered chicken genome should shed light on human DNA

MALCOLM RITTER

(AP) - Here's something to ponder when you bite into your next

chicken wing: A new study says about 60 per cent of the genes in the

critter you're eating have close cousins in your own DNA.

In fact, the recently deciphered chicken genome should prove a

valuable tool for learning about the human version, researchers say

in their first detailed analysis of it. The work is presented by an

international team of scientists in Thursday's issue of the journal

Nature. The chicken's genome is the first from a bird to

be " sequenced, " which means scientists identified the one billion

letters of its DNA code. That job was completed and results made

available earlier this year.

Scientists sequence animal genomes in part because they provide

points of comparison for shedding light on the human genome. Since

the chicken and human genomes have been evolving separately for

about 310 million years, it's at a " sweet spot " on the evolutionary

tree for such comparisons, said of the Washington

University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

, senior author of the Nature paper, said such analyses can

help identify chemical switches that turn genes on and off, for

example.

In fact, the new analysis revealed that people have genes related to

chicken genes for eggshell proteins, which evidently play a role in

bone formation.

said the chicken genome may also help scientists learn about

bird flu, the viral disease found in chickens that might someday set

off a deadly worldwide outbreak of human flu. And the genome should

also help agricultural scientists track down genes for commercially

desirable traits, Schmutz and Jane Grimwood of the Stanford

Human Genome Center wrote in a Nature commentary.

and colleagues sequenced and analysed the genome of the red

jungle fowl, the progenitor of domesticated chickens. Its DNA

contains only about one-third as many letters as human DNA does, but

roughly the same number of genes, some 20,000 to 23,000.

One surprise was that chickens have more genes related to sensing

odours than expected, suggesting a sharper sense of smell than

scientists believed, said. On the other hand, they have fewer

genes devoted to sensing tastes than mammals do, especially for

bitter sensations, researchers found.

Not surprisingly, chickens were found to lack any version of the

human genes for milk, saliva and tooth enamel. These genes were, as

the scientists put it in a presentation for reporters, as rare as

hen's teeth.

Unfortunately, the new analysis shed no light on a mystery that has

long bedeviled humanity: Why does the chicken cross the road?

" That question, " observed in an interview, " is still out

there to be answered. "

[Guest guest]

,

Very interesting article! I was especially interested in the part

about the chickens having more sensing odours than humans and then

they have fewer genes for sensing tastes. Thanks for sharing this.

Gretchen