genome sequence

(Virginia Tech) Turkey is the fourth most economically important source of meat for consumers in the United States.

The genome sequence and genomic resources should provide turkey breeders with the tools needed to improve commercial breeds of turkey for production traits such as meat yield and quality, health and disease resistance, and fertility and reproduction.

The sequence work is now about 90 percent complete.

(Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council) Scientists have shown that E. coli -- one of the best known and extensively studied organisms in the world -- remains an enigma that may hold the key to human diseases, such as cancer.

The team has examined the genome sequence of this workhorse of the laboratory and spotted three previously unknown genes that are essential for the survival of E. coli.

One out of the three could be implicated in cancer or developmental abnormalities in humans.