<p>This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.</p> <p>Until recently, the Human Genome Project held centre stage in the press releases concerning sequencing programmes. However, in October 2001, it was announced
that the Japanese puffer fish (<italic>Takifugu rubripes, Fugu</italic>) was the second vertebrate
organism to be sequenced to draft quality. Briefly, the spotlight was on fish genomes.
There are currently two other fish species undergoing intensive sequencing, the green
spotted puffer fish (<italic>Tetraodon nigroviridis</italic>) and the zebrafish (<italic>Danio rerio</italic>). But this
trio are, in many ways, atypical representations of the current state of fish genomic
research. The aim of this brief review is to demonstrate the complexity of fish as a
group of vertebrates and to publicize the ‘lesser-known’ species, all of which have
something to offer.</p>
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Comp Funct Genomics. 2003 Apr; 4(2):182-193