Vast sequencing project begins to unlock human genome’s secrets — by deciphering other mammals’ DNA
Despite decades of advancements in genomics, we still don’t know what most of our DNA does. But an ambitious international research collaboration is providing new answers about how genetics shapes human health and disease, with help from an unlikely source — a menagerie of mammals.
The findings, reported in a set of 11 studies published on Thursday in the journal Science, come out of the Zoonomia Project, which compared the genomes of 240 mammalian species. The list of sequenced creatures reads a bit like the passenger manifest of Noah’s Ark: Amazon river dolphins, greater mouse-eared bats, fat-tailed dwarf lemurs, horses, humans, and more.
