Using a male poodle, the family pet of one of the scientists, researchers have completed the first rough draft sequence of the genes of a dog.

Man's best friend now joins more than 150 other species, mostly bacteria, that have been genetically sequenced. The dog is the first companion animal to have its genetic structure sequenced. A report on the work appears this week in the journal Science.

The sequenced specimen came from Shadow, a standard size poodle owned by gene researcher J. Craig Venter, founder of both The Institute for Genomic Research and the Center for Advancement of Genomics, where the sequence work was done.

``Shadow is now one of history's most valuable dogs,'' said Venter, who was the leader of one of the two teams that earlier sequenced the human genome.

The rough draft shows dogs have about 2.4 billion base pairs of DNA, or about half a billion fewer than humans. It also shows that dogs have a greater genetic similarity to humans than do mice, the more commonly used laboratory research animal.

The institute's Ewen F. Kirkness, the first author of the study, said that genetic sequence is important for medical research because dogs share about 360 of the same genetic disorders that are known in humans.

Dogs, he said, are second only to humans in the thoroughness of medical understanding and research.

Kirkness said that even though mice and humans are closer together on the tree of evolution, the gene structure of dogs and humans bear a closer resemblance.

All mammals, at one point, had a common ancestor. But dogs are known to have diverged toward an independent species about 95 million years ago. The mouse and humans both diverged about 87 million years ago, making mice closer to humans in time.

``We are much closer to the dog than to the mouse in terms of our gene content and structure,'' said Venter. ``But if you do the evolutionary tree, we are on the same linage as the mouse. The mouse is evolving at a much faster rate.''

The researchers achieved what is called 1.5 X coverage of the dog genome. This means many DNA fragments remain and the results are less accurate than the completed sequences of some other species. For instance, the mouse has been sequenced to 8 X coverage, which is considered ideal and essentially complete.

Venter said that by using the genetic sequences already completed for other species, particularly the human and the mouse, his team was able through comparison to quickly identify genes and gene regulatory elements in the dog genome that match those in other mammals.

Using this technique from species to species will enable researchers to more quickly and at less cost identify the genetic source of many human disorders, he said.

Venter said his labs can now do three other mammal species, probably the whale, elephant and dolphin, for what it would have cost to carry the dog genome to 8 X coverage.

William J. Murphy, a researcher at the Laboratory of Genomic Diversity at the National Cancer Institute, said the new study shows that even a less than complete sequence of mammal genes can be very useful and more quickly advance human genetic studies.

A more complete genetic sequencing of the dog is being funded at another lab by the National Institutes of Health, Murphy said. It is expected to be finished next year.

With the dog completed, can the cat be far behind? Murphy said his lab has proposed sequencing the feline genome. The chicken genome is expected to be finished this year and gene sequencing has been proposed for the pig and the cow, he said.

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