Tail-wagging gene?

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, December 7, 2005

The Washington Post reports that the entire dog genome was published today, all 2.41 billion nucleotides, which are the DNA letters that make up an organism’s genome. Here’s the story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/07/AR2005120702457.html, and here’s the Boston Globe’s account: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/12/08/team_of_scientists_maps_out_99_of_dog_genome/

Key passage: “The dog — in the form of a female boxer named Tasha — joins the human, the chimpanzee, the mouse and the rat on the list of mammals whose genetic instruction manual has been transcribed. The genomes of the fruit fly, a microscopic worm, yeast and several bacteria have also been decoded. … It is already providing insights into evolution and will probably make dogs the chief tool for understanding the genetic diseases of people.”