With scientists and publicists still trying to make out that there is no competition, the race between Celera and the publicly funded sequencing effort completes another lap. This time the finishing line was the announcement of a draft sequence of the mouse genome.
This round of the competition had a staggered start, with Celera announcing that it had begun sequencing in April 2000, and the publicly funded Mouse Sequencing Consortium being initiated in October 2000. Unlike the sequencing of the human genome, when Celera and the HGP held hands to cross the finishing line together and publish their data simultaneously, Celera took this one alone.
On 27 April Celera took first place, stating that its whole genome shotgun process had provided the company with a 6X coverage of the mouse genome, derived from three strains of mouse (129X1/SvJ, DBA/2J and A/J). Celera claims that its sequence covers more than 99% ...
