Washington (dpa) - Privately-held Celera Genomics said Monday it has assembled the entire mouse genome, or elemental genetic code, in addition to the human genome sequence which it and a publicly-funded project also announced.

Celera said its scientists had sequenced 15.8 billion base DNA pairs from several strains of mice used in scientific research. With the information they were able to map the mouse genome with 99 per cent accuracy.

Celera plans to publish some of the information to the public while withholding other information and putting it up for sale to mouse breeding laboratories or other genetic researchers.

Celera's findings show humans have just a few hundred more genes than those found in the mouse and the patterns are similar.

The private company located in suburban Rockville, Maryland, said earlier that there are between 26,500 and 30,000 human genes, well below earlier estimates that had ranged up to 140,000 genes.

Although similar in many ways, mouse genes are smaller and appear to be less complex than human genes, according to Celera officials.

The publicly-funded Human Genome Project also has worked up a sequence for the mouse, it will publish the information in April and distribute it free to the public on the Internet.

(From Sohu)