The study of DNA is a fast-moving adventure that becomes more astonishing with every passing discovery
On Tuesday, US researchers confirmed the mixed ancestry of that icon of the American range, the Texas longhorn: its DNA came from cattle from Europe and the Middle East, and from the Indian subcontinent. On Wednesday one team of researchers published the genetic sequence of the mountain pine beetle, a voracious pest that has so far destroyed more than 15m hectares of forest in North America, and another did the same for the western painted turtle, an air-breathing creature that can survive four months under water. On Thursday, Nature Genetics reported on the genetic "spelling mistakes" identified in 100,000 patients with breast, ovarian and prostate cancer, and today the journal Science tried to identify simple principles that might connect more than 140 genes so far associated with the growth of tumours.
What is startling about such research is how ordinary it has become. The structure of DNA was revealed 60 years ago . It was more than 20 years before anyone understood how to decipher the genetic code, and more than 30 years before anyone dreamed of compiling the entire 3bn-letter sequence of a human being. When the Human Genome Project was completed in April 2003, it was hailed as biology's equivalent of the moon landing. Ten years on, what began as costly, painstaking and uncertain science has become commonplace.
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