With the consistent, almost two months-long efforts of the scientists at the Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (IGIB), New Delhi, a striped 'Zebra fish,' picked up from a rivulet in Assam, has become the first vertebrate in India to have its whole genome sequenced.

The Indian scientists sequenced nearly 1.7 billion genetic alphabets that make up the full genome of the Zebra fish. Along with being native to Indian rivers, the barely four centimeter long striped fish is popular in household aquariums and is widely considered an ideal organism for studying human genes, as it has blood, eye, heart, kidney and other biological processes similar to the human system.

Talking about the significance of having worked out the genome sequence, Dr. Vinod Scaria, IGIB's research team member, said: "After the mouse, the zebrafish is the most favoured animal model for human diseases. The zebrafish may be used to study the mechanics of a variety of human diseases - cardiovascular diseases, genetic disorders, blood disorders, muscle and bone diseases."

In order to complete the Zebra fish sequence, high-speed sequencers and computers were used by the researchers, who have now embarked on the next phase of the research called 'Project Kaurava', by launching the world's first endeavor towards comparison of genetic variations in 100 siblings from a single parent zebrafish.