S'pore scientists help map the fugu genome which is similar to the human one and so a short cut to find out how it ticks

By Chang Ai-lien

SINGAPORE scientists' 10-year love affair with the Japanese puffer fish has paid off in a big way.

The liaison resulted in a draft of the puffer fish or fugu genome, which gives researchers a short cut to understanding what makes human genes tick, as well as uncovering new human genes.

This, in turn, paves the way for finding new drugs to cure diseases.

Their hard work culminates in Singapore's debut on the world genomics stage today, when the results are made public at the Genome Sequencing and Analysis Conference in San Diego, California.

The fugu genome contains essentially the same genes and sequences as the human one, but squeezed into only one-eighth of the space, explained Dr B. Venkatesh, principal investigator at the Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IMCB), which teamed up with international partners to map the genetic blueprint of the fugu.

With far less 'junk DNA' cluttering the picture, he said, it was easier to sort through its genetic information, to compare it to its human counterpart.

He added: 'If last year's mapping of the human genome created the book of life, then we have now got the abridged version, minus the fancy wrappers and unwanted material.'

This is the first vertebrate genome to be sequenced - after the human genome.

Said Dr Venkatesh: 'We know there are about 30,000 genes in the human genome, but the results are not very accurate, and a significant portion of the genes still remains undiscovered.

'The comparison between the fugu and human genomes will unravel many more novel genes that may have been missed.

'It will also help us determine when, where and why a gene is turned on and off.'

The IMCB and the United States Department of Energy's Joint Genome Institute led the Fugu Genome Consortium in what was one of the largest international collaborations since the Human Genome Project.

Other partners were Britain's Medical Research Council's Human Genome Mapping Resource Centre, the Cambridge University Department of Oncology and the Institute for Systems Biology in the US.

To map the fugu genome, researchers first chopped it into four million pieces small enough to be sequenced. They then reassembled it like a giant jigsaw puzzle, using computer models.

The data will be made available for free.

Although the consortium was formed only last November, the fugu project was initiated by eminent scientist Sydney Brenner, in Cambridge, Britain, in 1989. The IMCB took up the research soon afterwards.