The achievement could advance genetic studies considerably

Sep 15, 2011 09:41 GMT  ·  By
The genomes of 17 mouse strains have just been sequenced by an international team of researchers
   The genomes of 17 mouse strains have just been sequenced by an international team of researchers

In a groundbreaking new study, experts managed to sequence the genetic codes, or genomes, of 17 strains of lab mice. The tiny rodents are widely used as proxies for a variety of human diseases and conditions, due to the fact that many of their ailments affect our species as well.

The number of new drugs, therapies and treatments based on mice studies is immense, experts say, and covers both physical and psychiatric health. Numerous brain conditions or disorders are modeled on mice, including depression and various forms of dementia.

Given their importance to medical research, scientists decided that the animals needed to be understood in even more detail, so they conducted this new investigation. Their goal was to make it easier for their colleagues to determine which gene is responsible for what effect in these rodent strains.

By studying the genome as a whole, such connections can be made faster and with a greater degree of accuracy than via other study methods. Geneticists can now proceed towards creating more advanced genetic maps of the interactions in the mouse genome.

The 17 strains of mice that were analyzed in this survey are the 17 most used mouse strains ever developed. They can be found in research labs around the world, used as proxies for a wide array of human diseases.

The primary goal investigators have is to gain a deeper understanding of the subsets of mutations and genes that underly individual disorders or illnesses. By doing so in mice, they pave the way towards conducting such studies in humans as well, which may eventually lead to a new cure or treatment.

Details of the new investigation – which was funded in part by the US National Science Foundation (NSF) – were published in this week's issue of the top scientific journal Nature. The work was led by an international collaboration of researchers.

“Mouse genomes are complex patchworks of different histories,” conclude University of Wisconsin-Madison (UWM) investigators Bret Payseur and Michael White, who were both part of the group.

Of the mice studies, four wild-derived mouse strains were used to reconstruct the animal's evolutionary history. Creating a genealogy tree for the creature provided evolutionary biologists with a clearer understanding of how it evolved over millions of years.