USFWS MOUNTAIN-PRAIRE, KIMBERLY TAMKU
Species: Domestic ferret (Mustela putorious furo)
Genome size: 2.41 billion base pairs
Ferrets last made biomedical headlines in the furor surrounding two papers reporting lab-engineered H5N1 flu strains transmissible between the mammals (See “Deliberating over Danger,” The Scientist, April 2012). Now, the quest to understand mammalian respiratory diseases has made a less-controversial leap forward with the recent publication of the first full ferret genome in Nature Biotechnology this November.
Originally domesticated from the European polecat to aid humans in their hunt for burrow-dwelling animals, the ferret has since become popular not only as a household pet but also as an ...
