First monkey genome decoded
Today

By Dr Jess Buxton:

US scientists have unveiled a completed version of an entire monkey genome, that of the rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta). The researchers, based at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas and 34 collaborating institutions, hope that their findings will help explain key differences between monkeys and people - in particular their susceptibility to certain diseases. The study, published in the journal Science, reveals that macaques share around 93 per cent of their genetic information with humans.

The results of the project will allow scientists to compare the genomes of the macaques, humans, and chimpanzees - our closest animal relative, with whom share 98 per cent of our DNA sequence. Humans and macaques last shared a common ancestor around 25 million years ago, while we diverged from chimpanzees a mere six millennia ago.

Team member George Weinstock says that 'When you sequence the genome of a non-human primate, you open the door to understanding the biology of an animal that's really closely related to us, and that's very exciting'. Having a third primate genome available will allow researchers to study the genetic differences between chimpanzees and humans, to see which species carries the 'older' version present in the macaque. This will allow them to pinpoint genetic variations crucial to human evolution, an approach which will be even more powerful once the planned gibbon, marmoset, orangutan and gorilla genomes are also available, Nature News reports.

Macaques are genetically and physiologically similar to humans, and so are the most widely used non-human primate in biomedical research. Understanding how they differ from humans at the genetic level will allow the monkeys to be used more wisely in such studies, says Weinstock.

The scientists have also discovered that macaques have many more of a group of genes involved in sugar metabolism than humans - a difference they speculate could have allowed macaques to start eating a diet rich in fruit. Other genes that appear to have diverged since the two species parted evolutionary company are some of those involved in hair formation, immunity and sperm-egg fusion.