Saturday December 15, 2007, 5:41 pm
The study focused on losses caused by mutations that disrupt the open reading frame (ORF-disrupting mutations) which can be due to insertion or substitution of a DNA base alter the instructions delivered by the DNA, or changes that occur when a large portion of a gene is deleted altogether or moves to a new place on the genome.

They identified 26 losses of long-established genes, including 16 that were not previously known and compared it with genomes of the human, chimpanzee, rhesus monkey, mouse, rat, dog, and opossum to estimate the amount of time the gene was functional before it was lost.

Saturday December 15, 2007, 5:44 pm
And humans and cats are the two species that kept the most original DNA from before the divergence? Am I remembering correctly??

Saturday December 15, 2007, 7:37 pm
Rochelle, The following was previously reported:

Based on the structure of the chromosomes, the cat genome much more closely resembles that of humans than that of other nonprimate species. Unlike cats and humans, pieces of chromosomes in the dog, mouse, rat, and others have been reshuffled.

http://www.care2.com/news/member/504543400/527876

Sunday December 16, 2007, 12:38 am

Really interesting!!!

Thank you Eduardo