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Friday, 18 February, 2000, 18:14 GMT
Fruit fly gene success
![]() We have much in common with the fruit fly
Scientists have unravelled virtually the entire genetic code of the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster). The work will be enormously helpful in figuring out the more complex genome of humans.
The researchers said they had deciphered more than 97% of the fly's genetic code and more than 99% of the actual genes. In all, it turns out that every fruit fly cell contains 13,601 genes. Human cells, by contrast, are thought to have more 70,000 genes. The achievement is being widely hailed as a dramatic and important development in science - it is the most complex organism yet to have its genome decoded. But while some believe it proves that the technology used to decode the genome is effective, others believe that unravelling the human DNA sequence will be much more difficult. Human connection Fruit flies share nearly 60% of human genes and are studied by thousands of scientists around the world. The reason is that fruit flies and humans use the same or similar genes to develop into adults. And the short life cycle of the fly makes it an ideal subject for genetic experiments.
"So in many ways they're really fully functional animals with a brain and behaviour, in addition to sharing many of the biochemical pathways humans have." Professor Rubin set up the Berkeley Drosophila Genome Project Group in 1992. Since then, he has been sequencing the entire genetic blueprint. The information can be accessed on the internet by scientists, and Dr Matthew Freeman, at the Medical Research Council in Cambridge, UK, has been making practical use of the information. He studies flies with disrupted eyes. "It turned out that the molecules causing these problems in fruit flies were the same molecules that we know were responsible for causing cancer in humans. So our research in something as bizarre-sounding as a fruit fly's eyes leads to an understanding of the molecules that cause cancer in humans." Soil worm Decoding an organism's genome is time-consuming but the technology used is becoming faster and faster. The soil worm Caenorhabditis elegans took eight years to decode, but the more complicated fruit fly has been completed in the same time.
"Working with Craig Venter and his colleagues at Celera has allowed us to complete the project 18 months earlier and probably saved the US tax payer $10 million," Professor Rubin told the BBC. Dr Peter Little is a molecular biologist at Imperial College, London, UK. He agrees that the complete sequencing of the fruit fly genome is significant and useful. He said: "It is a dramatic and important achievement and provides a very powerful way of developing hypotheses which can then be tested in humans." Gene race However, Dr Little disagrees that this means that Celera is sure to win the race to complete the human genome, beating the publicly-funded Human Genome Project. "You have to understand that the fly genome is 10 times smaller than the human genome, and is also simpler. In humans, the same sequence is found over and over again - it's the most ghastly mess, but the fly isn't."
"But we won't know until very late in their project - their method does everything at once, whereas the HGP does things in steps, looking in great detail," he said. He added: "If I was a betting man, and I am, I would still put money on the publicly-funded HGP to produce the biologically-important information before Celera."
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