The National Institutes of Health recently announced which species would be given priority in federal genetic sequencing programs. The NIH took proposals from genetic researchers and ultimately selected the chimpanzee, the chicken, the honeybee, the sea urchin, the protozoan Tetrahymena thermophila and a family of fungi.

The federal government currently spends $155 million annually divided between the Whitehead Institute, Baylor College of Medicine and Washington University School of Medicine.

Once those centers finish existing genetic sequencing efforts, including putting the finishing touches on the sequencing of the human genome, work will begin on sequencing the genomes of the species given priority by the NIH.

Source:

Species chosen for Genome Project. Rick Weiss, The Washington Post, May 23, 2002.