She may not be my actual sister, but it has been found that about 60% of her genes correspond to my own. Even though I believed my sister had a poor sense of smell, the number of smell receptors in her genome suggests her sense of smell is on par with my own. The chicken genome has taught me about Helga. The chicken genome has approximately the same number of genes as the human genome (20 000-25 000), yet has only 1.1 billion DNA base pairs (humans = 2.8 billion), as chickens do not have as many DNA repeats, duplications and non-functional genes.
Sequencing the genome of chickens has wider applications, for example, in emerging human diseases, 75% of which are zoonotic. Many of these diseases are insignificant in animals but are devastating in humans. The genome of a species is one important factor in how it responds to an agent. Specific proteins made from genes are essential to the cell in ‘fighting off’ disease. If we sequenced many species’ genomes, we could pinpoint the part of DNA that allows a species to have particular immunity to a disease. For example, wild fowl act as asymptomatic carriers to the H5N1 avian influenza strain, unlike domestic birds who have a high mortality rate. As the bird flu is in danger of successfully mutating into a human disease (spreading from human to human), it is very important to know more about different species’ genomes and how mutation occurs so that we can stop future epidemics.
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