The
infection model zebrafish genome has some unique characteristics, not considered in other vertebrates. They have the highest content of the repeat in their genome series so far indicated in any vertebrate species: almost twice as much as seen in their closest relative, the common carp. Also unique to the zebrafish, the chromosomal regions determined people that influence the determination of sex.
The genebank of the zebrafish contains few pseudogenes - thinking of the genes having lost their function with evolution - compared to the human genome. People determined 154 pseudogenes in the zebrafish genome, a part of the 13,000 or so pseudogenes found in the human genome.
"To realize the advantages zebrafish can make to human health, we need to understand the genome in its entirety - the similarities to the human genome and the differences," says Professor Christiane N-sslein-Volhard, author and Nobel Prize winner of Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology. "Armed with the zebrafish genome, we can now better understand how changes to our genomes result in disease."