Cow genome map may lead to breed improvements

URBANA, Ill. -- Research-ers are near completion of a rough map of the cattle genome, an achievement scientists say could eventually help breed healthier cows that produce more milk and the choicest cuts of meat.

The map, which uses the human genome as a key, should be finished by the end of the year and published in early 2003. Scientists hope to eventually use the map as a tool in sequencing the entire cattle genome.

"We're very optimistic about this and what it will mean for bovine research," said Steven Kappes, director of the USDA's Meat Animal Research Center in Clay Center, Neb.

The map will cover about 95 percent of the cattle genome, using the completed human genome as a reference base. The $2.5 million project is being funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and helps lay the groundwork for completion of the entire cattle genome, scientists say.

A consortium of scientists from the University of Illinois, Texas A&M University, the British Columbia Cancer Agency and The Institute for Genomic Research in Rockville, Md., have been working on the project the past five years.

'Mining' the genome

The map is currently being completed in labs at Illinois.

Harris Lewin, director of Illinois' W.M. Keck Center for Comparative Genomics, said the rough map of the cattle genome -- the chemical sequence that contains the basic information for building and running an organism -- can help researchers improve genetic traits of beef and dairy cattle.

"Having that information is really like the human genome -- you begin to mine it. And you can utilize it in many different ways to develop new tools for hunting for genes of economic importance," Lewin said.

Last year, scientists published the first completed map of the human genome. Soon after, a consortium of government and private laboratories completed a rough draft of the mouse genome.

Both discoveries were seen as landmark breakthroughs.

The human genome is expected to help scientists find disease-promoting genes, develop better drugs and tailor therapies to particular patients.

Sequencing the mouse genome is expected to enable scientists to use mouse genes for experiments that can then be applied to humans. The human and mouse genomes are very similar; both share many of the same basic genes.

$100 million project

Kappes, with the USDA's Agricultural Resource Service, said a group of scientists, including those at Illinois, are still awaiting a decision from the USDA on whether to fund the full sequencing of the cattle genome.

The project would cost about $100 million, and he said it may require private groups to step in and help with funding.

Once the cattle genome is completed, which Lewin predicts will be happen within the next two years if the funding is approved, scientists can then begin to identify all of the genes' functions.