Australian Oddities: Help us, Help them.

http://genome.wustl.edu/ancillary/data/whitepapers/Ornithorhynchus_anatinus_WP.pdf

Historically, Australian fauna was considered oddball, misfits from spare parts of evolution. In science this often resulted in Australian native species being overlooked, with costly research deemed unlikely to yield results significant to mankind, as many species disappeared altogether. With the success of recent human gene mapping, however, the differences of Australian fauna may become their saviour as “comparative genetics” rises as a method of understanding the newly mapped Homo Sapiens genome.

P. Temple-Smith et. al. (2003) and J. Graves et. al. (2004) both constructed successful proposals for the sequencing of the Platypus and Tammar Wallaby, by suggesting that monotreme genes may provide explanations of human gene functions. The development of these projects have revealed issues relevant to human medicine such as the lack of a gene in platypus previously believed to control sex differentiation, suggesting a rethink of sex-chromosome related models, and gene expression during different stages of lactation during Tammar Wallaby development, providing possible treatments for premature babies.

Through comparative genetics, and the possible compatible differences between man and marsupial, Australia’s unusual wildlife has shown benefits to scientific research, paving the way for further projects, and thus increasing overall understanding, interest in, and the likelihood of the survival of Australian fauna as a whole.

Ellana S. Hetherington

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