The world-famous scientific magazine The Nature issued three thematic scientific papers on Dec. 9, illustrating the major achievements the Beijing Genome Institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences has made in polymorphous research on jungle fowl and chicken genomes.

This is another major breakthrough made by Chinese scientists through their participation in and management of the research under the framework of international cooperation, with their accession to the "Human Genome Project" as the starting-point. The breakthrough further consolidates China's leading position in the international genome science field.

According to Liu Bin, a research fellow with the Beijing Genome Institute under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, they have found more than 2.8 million variation points through making a comparison between the genome sequence of three kinds of chickens and the frame diagram of red jungle fowl, which has provided a huge amount of first-hand research materials for chicken biological research.

Meanwhile, the drawing up of a chicken genome frame diagram and the comparison made between genome sequences of vertebrate and human have also furnished a fresh basis for the research on the evolution of animal genome.

The research result established the world's first genome frame diagram on farming animals and will definitely accelerate the basic subject research on living things with chicken as the pattern.

The result will also boost the research on the hereditary character of the local improved variety and quantity of specific chickens in China, providing necessary experimental tools for improved breeds. Modern technologies such as the genetic marker and gene chip are used to study the law governing the expression of chicken genes and carry out research on chicken biology (disease resistance, growth rate and the amount of eggs laid) and genetic breeding that directly serve production.

(People's Daily December 11, 2004)