An international consortium has read the DNA of 233 primate species, half of all known ones. The torrent of genetic information will make it easier to identify pathological mutations, such as those that cause cancer.

Researchers have used this data to train an algorithm with which to identify mutations associated with diseases. Their results are published Thursday in a special issue of the journal Science.. The last common ancestor of people and chimpanzees roamed the planet about seven million years ago. The genome of humans is more similar to the genome of gorillas than that of chimpanzees.