Year of the cat--in more ways than one
Garber, K.
Science 280(5371): 1841
1998
ISSN/ISBN: 0036-8075 PMID: 9669935 Document Number: 497337
Researchers at the National Cancer Institute's Laboratory of Genomic Diversity in Frederick, Maryland, expect to complete a genetic map of the cat this year. The immediate goal of the Feline Genome Project is to produce a map with around 950 markers spread across the approximately 3 billion bases in the cat genome. There are no plans to determine the complete cat genome sequence, but the cat map could nonetheless prove to be a useful guide to human genetic diseases. Cats and humans share almost 60 inherited diseases, and researchers plan to use the map to trace the cat disease genes and then mine the comparable regions of the human and mouse genomes for candidates for human disease genes.