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DUNDEE University is coordinating a Pounds 2 million pan-European project which hopes to cast light on human genetic make-up by examining the DNA of the fruit fly. David Glover of the department of anatomy and physiology said: "Huge efforts are being made to sequence the entire human genome, but we can also learn a great deal about our own genetic make-up from simple organisms such as the fruit fly." Humans had copies of the genes originally found to specify the identity of fly segments, Professor Glover said.

The European Union-funded initiative involves scientists in Dundee, Cambridge, Crete, France and Spain, while a parallel North American initiative will be centred at the University of California.