Over the past several years, scientists from the United States and around the world have been using a technique called DNA sequencing to unlock the genetic code of many different organisms. With code in hand, scientists can design sophisticated experiments that will inform our understanding of how an organism develops and functions. To date, they have carried out partial or complete DNA sequencing on human, mouse, rat, bacterial, and plant genomes. A major finding that was confirmed from these efforts is that most biologic functions are genetically conserved within and between species
