By Paul Elias
The Associated Press

Move over, Human Genome Project.

Other creatures are in line to get their genes decoded, with hoped-for benefits including not just healthier, longer-living humans but also tastier steaks and sweeter honey.

It took 13 years, $300 million and hundreds of washing machine-sized computers for government-supported scientists to produce the precise chemical code that is the human genetic blueprint.

Now all that computing power is being used to produce the genetic codes of all sorts of creatures in record time - and increasingly cheaper.

Today, a consortium of U.S. and Australian government officials will present at the Biotechnology Industry Organization convention in San Francisco their plan to map the tammar wallaby's genome. They say the small kangaroo's genetic blueprint will help the study of human reproduction.

At least three dozen other research teams have succeeded, or are lobbying, to get nonhuman genomes sequenced.

It took researchers about a year and about $80 million to churn out the chimpanzee's genetic code, announced in December. The chicken genome cost about $50 million and the pig's supporters hope to produce a porcine genome for about $35 million.

In the case of the kangaroo, researchers expect the final cost to be far below $10 million.

Much of the animal work is being driven by the National Human Genome Research Institute, which led the Human Genome Project. The institute is the top government DNA sequencing agency and has budgeted $163 million this year for sequencing the genomes of things other than human.

"The success of the Human Genome Project has resulted in dramatic decreases in the cost of large-scale sequencing," institute chief Francis Collins said in an e-mail interview. In March, a draft of the chicken genome was finished, and honey producers are licking their lips over the completion of the bee genome in January.

Meanwhile, the nonprofit Alliance for Animal Genome is cobbling together funding and reserving sequencing capacity to uncover the pig's genetic recipe. Food producers say they can exploit this detailed genetic knowledge to more efficiently manage and breed their herds.

Cow test has much at steak

It isn't just public money, then, that's fueling genome-decoding fever.

On Monday, Cargill Inc. announced it used the cow genome to develop a genetic test that can sort live cattle for the exact steaks they are expected to produce.

Cargill used the cow genome to develop a blood test for genetic markers that show which cattle will produce the best cuts. The company plans to begin using the blood test this summer.

Animal genome researchers expect to yield enormous amounts of data applicable to the human condition.

They're using animal genomes to help them identify genes in people, and understand how genes are turned on and off at the right times and in the right parts of the body.

It took Stanford University researcher David Kingsley three years to find the gene responsible for producing the pelvic fins of the stickleback fish, a finding that helps understand how human limbs develop.

But now that the stickleback genome is being sequenced, Kingsley hopes to begin finding other important genes in a matter of weeks and months.

"Fish also offer study of broad evolutionary trends," Kingsley said. "All animals came from the sea and some of them went back to the sea."

This new genome mapping craze is driven by cost-saving efficiencies realized almost daily in producing genetic codes and abundant sequencing capacity created by the Human Genome Project.

By comparing and contrasting the human genome to other organism genomes, scientists will be better able crack the meaning of the mostly inscrutable genetic code now in their possession.

"Having the human genome completed represents a remarkable milestone, but it's written in a language we still don't understand very well," Collins said.

On the Net: Biotechnology Industry Organization: http://www. bio.org; National Human Genome Research Institute: http://www.genome.gov