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What makes a mouse a mouse and a human a human?

South African scientists at the University of the Western Cape join up with international team to take the first big step towards the discovery of what makes a mouse a mouse and a human a human.

UWC's SA National Bioinformatics Institute (SANBI) Researchers announced the publishing of a milestone research finding which will transform our understanding of how the genes in mammals are controlled to enable the similar gene structures found in man and mouse not to develop into the same organism.

By describing the messages genes send inside a mouse embryo to enable it to grow into an adult, and what codes are used to turn these on and off, the studies provide detailed insight into what makes a mouse a mouse, and a human a human. Both have similar numbers of genes in their genomes that appear to code for quite similar proteins. With such similarities it is a mystery as to what causes the one mammal to grow a tail and the other a nose. Their genome sequences are known but they are not yet linked to the workings of the cell, disease and the development of the human form.

This study provides the links, termed messenger RNA, to the structures that are made to grow cells into adult animals. The groundbreaking research used new technology that accurately tags the beginning and end of each of over 20 million messages created by genes, resulting in a powerful profile of the sites around the genes which control which genes send messages at which time to the cell. The findings suggest that the difference between mouse and human may well lie in the control systems of these genes, and not in the structures of the proteins some of them code for.

"We have provided the biomedical research community with the tools to understand the controls that are needed to make a mammal. We have deciphered the genome sequence not only for the code for making the parts (proteins) of a mammal, but also the code for making the right forms, in the right amounts, in the right place, at the right time," states UWC scientist Professor Winston Hide. These studies have been carried out mainly on mice; the most widely used experimental mammalian species. Equivalent human data is not far behind, and SANBI UWC and its partners are actively involved in the next phase, the Genome Network consortium which aims to use these new tools to understand human development and disease.

More information:

Prof Winston Hide
Director SA National Bioinformatics Institute
University of the Western Cape
Tel: + 27 021 959 3645

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