Genetic Code of Pufferfish Unraveled

An international team has produced a first draft of the genome of the Japanese pufferfish Fugu rubripes , a feat that is expected to aid in understanding the human genome.

The Fugu genome is thought to contain basically the same genes and regulatory sequences that are found in the human genome--with some exceptions that give the fish its unique identity. But it contains that information in approximately 365 million individual chemicals called bases, compared with the 3 billion bases that make up human DNA.

The human genome contains large amounts of extraneous DNA, so-called junk DNA, that scientists have to wade through to identify actual genes. The Fugu DNA has much less junk DNA.

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Compiled by Times medical writer Thomas H. Maugh II