Scientists have announced advances in understanding the genetic make-up of two very different species - the long extinct cave bear and the kangaroo. In Europe, a team of French and Dutch scientists has sequenced the mitochondrial DNA of the cave bear while in Australia, researchers have launched a map of the kangaroo genome.
The former project represents an important milestone in the sequencing of the mitochondrial DNA of extinct creatures. To date such work has covered the moa, a large flightless bird that formerly lived in New Zealand, and woolly mammoths and mastodons.
Moa DNA was sequenced from relatively recent remains although that of the woolly mammoth and mastodon was extracted from remains frozen in permafrost. The cave bear mitochondrial DNA sequence, however, was created from a 32,000-year-old bone gathered from a palaeolithic painted cave of Chauvet-Pont d'Arc in France.
The researchers concluded the cave bear was related to the brown bear and polar bear, diverging from them about 1.6 million years ago. Their work was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this month.
Meanwhile, Australian researchers last week launched the first detailed map of the kangaroo genome, completing the first phase of the kangaroo genomics project. Researchers at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Kangaroo Genomics (KanGO), built a framework to assemble the genome of a model kangaroo, the tammar wallaby.
"A good map is crucial for finding our way around a new genome," said former KanGO Director, Professor Jenny Graves, adding the DNA sequence would be arranged using the genome map and used for research into how genes are turned on and off during development of all mammals.
"Kangaroos are a marvellous model for studying human development and reproduction because they are born very early and complete much of their development in the pouch, rather than the womb," said incoming KanGO Director Laureate Professor Marilyn Renfree. "This makes them a powerful tool for studying the genes and hormones involved in mammalian reproduction and development."
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