Scientists claim world first with virtual sheep genome

A team of international scientists claimed a world first, saying they had constructed a “virtual map” of the sheep genome which would help farmers produce better wool and meat.

The physical DNA map of more than 98 percent of the sheep genome will be made publicly available this week, the Australian government’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) said Monday.

“The new sheep genome data will now fast-track the identification of the crucial genes responsible for sheep health and productivity, as well as for wool and meat quality,” CSIRO said.

Scientists from six countries, led by Australian and New Zealand researchers, drew on major components of the human genome project and also work done on the genomes of the dog and cow.
“(The) scientific team drew on the fact that the genes for sheep are similar to the genes for humans — the major difference being their order on the chromosomes.”

They compared small, known segments of the sheep genome to the genome map of humans and a computer program then re-ordered the human sequence into the order it might be in the sheep. “Most of the genes are the same in cattle, sheep and dogs and human beings, it’s just that they’re ordered differently,” team leader Brian Dalrymple said.

“We take the pieces from the order they are in the human genome, reorder them, and that gives us the order that they are in the sheep.”

He said that picture would enable farmers to decide which animals to breed to produce
particular physical characteristics in much more detail.

Dalrymple said the research had laid the ground work for the eventual sequencing of the sheep genome which would lead to a much more comprehensive and detailed map