Macaca mulatta Y chromosome. Macaca mulatta

The BCM-HGSC has sequenced the genome of the rhesus monkey (rhesus macaque, Macaca mulatta). The rhesus macaque is an Old World monkey. This primate model organism, while more distant from humans than chimpanzees or orangutans, is important for study of human disease due to its genetic, physiologic and metabolic similarity to humans. Rhesus monkeys are used for essential research in neuroscience, behavioral biology, infectious diseases, reproductive physiology, endocrinology, cardiovascular studies, pharmacology and other areas. The Y chromosome is assembled from a BAC tiling path of BACs from two libraries. Most of the sequence is from the CHORI-250 library, with four BAC sequences from RMAEX. Individual clones were sequenced and finished using traditional methods and a variety of sequencing technologies. This project is a collaboration between the Whitehead Institute, Washington University Genome Center and the Baylor College of Medicine Human Genome Sequencing Center. New methods of mapping BACs by pool genomic indexing (PGI) were developed. The sequencing and comparative analysis is funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), National Institutes of Health (NIH).