Non-mammalian animals can provide great insight into the principles of development and evolution, which in turn teaches us about human biology and disease. Such organisms include: classical genetic models such as fruitflies (Drosophila), fish used as models for the study of morphology and speciation (stickleback), pufferfish used as models of compact genomes, sea squirts used to assess the content of small chordate genomes and sea hare used as models for learning and memory in neurobiology (Aplysia).
The Broad Institute is involved in sequencing many such organisms, as listed below.
Current status:
| Vertebrate genomes | |
|---|---|
| Spotted green pufferfish (Tetraodon nigroviridis) | |
| 6x coverage | Complete 2002 |
| Draft assembly | tetNig1.0, released 2003 |
| Green Anole Lizard (Anolis carolinensis) | |
| 7x coverage | Complete February 2007 |
| Draft assembly | AnoCar1.0, March 2007 |
| Stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) | |
| 9.0x coverage | complete June 2006 |
| Draft assembly | gasAcu1, July 2006 |
| Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) | |
| 7x coverage | In Progress |
| Coelocanth (Indonesia) (Latimeria menadoensis) | |
| Under consideration | To Be Done |
| Coelocanth (South African) (Latimeria chalumnae) | |
| Under consideration | To Be Done |
| Invertebrate genomes | |
|---|---|
| Sea squirt (Ciona savignyi) | |
| 8x coverage | Complete 2002 |
| Draft assembly | ci1.0, released 2003 |
| Fruit fly (Drosophila persimilis) | |
| 3x coverage | Complete 2005 |
| Draft Assembly | Released August 2005 |
| Fruit fly (Drosophila sechelia) | |
| 3x coverage | Complete 2005 |
| Draft Assembly | Released June 2005 |
| Sea hare (Aplysia californica) | |
| 6x coverage | Complete 2009 |
