“For hundreds of years we have watched curiously as mice run round wheels, press levers or navigate mazes. Finally we have the genetic blueprint that will unveil the mysteries of the mouse” (The Times). This is how Simon Festing of the Association of Medical Charities described the achievement published in the 5 December issue of Nature. “The mouse sequence is the phrasebook that is transforming our ability to translate the human book of life.” (The Financial Times) said Jane Rodgers of the Sanger Centre.

“Scientists have attached such an importance to the murine genome that its [draft] sequence has been completed three years after the project was launched” (The Times) and the finished sequence is expected in 2005. The international consortium used the shotgun method, previously used by Celera to sequence the human and mouse genomes (both of which have been available to subscribers for 18 months). Craig Venter, the former director of Celera, said he felt “wonderfully vindicated that they [the consortium] have seen the power of a whole genome shotgun” (The New York Times).

“Even the genomes for small creatures are huge”, says The Guardian, for the mouse genome is 2.9 billion bp long. Its analysis revealed that mice and humans “share the same genes for blood pressure, temperature regulation, bone manufacture, cell division, tissue growth and so on.” (The Guardian) The sequence is complicated — “it's rather like being dropped into the middle of Tokyo with no knowledge of Japanese, and being asked to find your way around using a local newspaper” says Ewan Birney (The Times), so his task will be to develop “a guidebook or phrasebook, something that tells us what's good, what's bad and what's boring about this genome” (The Times).