Genetic blueprint of chimp on Web

By Rosie Mestel
Los Angeles Times

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The draft, covering 88 to 90 percent of the genome's gene-coding regions, has been carefully aligned with the human genome on the Web site, allowing a direct comparison of the two.

"We want to let the scientific community know that the sequence is available and they can have access to it," said Richard Wilson, director of the genome-sequencing center at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Researchers at Eli & Edythe L. Broad Institute of Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Washington participated in the study.

An international team of scientists is comparing the two and will publish its findings within several months.

Sequencing the chimp genome was ranked a high priority by the government's National Human Genome Research Institute. The information is expected to provide new approaches to fighting disease because chimps and humans succumb to different ailments: chimps, for instance, don't develop AIDS or malaria.

In addition, by comparing human and chimp genomes, scientists hope to learn more about the types of DNA changes that spawn speciation and to gather clues to mysteries such as aging and brain development, areas where the biology of chimps and human beings differ sharply.

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