Science - Forget dogs, this small rodent is man's best friend

''Consider the little mouse," wrote Platus, "how sagacious an animal it is that never entrusts its life to one hole only." It is not surprising, then, that humans - who, more often than not, do entrust their lives to one domicile - have both revered this tiny creature and in it created an indispensable commodity. The mouse has become an extension of us . . . or us of it?

Perhaps it is the mouse's persistent presence in our domestic environment that has helped it become a muse for poets down the ages. But there is also something in its social behaviour that makes it amenable as a surrogate for human social analysis. Burns's ode to a field mouse, "Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie", is more than just empathy. It is not only the mouse who is the downtrodden, inoffensive worker at the mercy of overbearing capitalist forces. In caricature or cartoon, the mouse is a token of benevolence and wisdom; and in science, its genetic similarity to humans has proved invaluable. Since 1921, when scientists first developed a tumour-prone mouse called the "A strain", the rodent has been an essential feature of medical laboratories. The team that recently completed the Human Genome Project is even expected to publish the mouse genome this month.

Our perception of the mouse does, however, have a strange Manichean thread; the good and the bad, the town and the country, the cute and cuddly and the disease-ridden plague awaiting death by trap and cheese. It is, one could say, a case of either Stuart Little or Mousehunt, to prove that the tradition is still alive and attracting audiences.

The contrast between the country mouse and its urban cousins has become a morality tale about the perils of urbanisation, although even a town mouse can overcome temptations and become a moral agent. Exemplary mice must include those who did work for the Tailor of Gloucester or, more famously, those who helped to deliver Cinderella to the ball.

Disney has done much to manipulate our opinion of the mouse - Mickey is one of the most globally recognised media icons of our time. It is unlikely, however, that the grey variety in our homes would be greeted with quite as much affection.

Which brings us to Jerry - the seamier side of mousedom. Eternally caught in a violent dialectic with Tom, Jerry is the brains and the brawn. He is indulgent and undermining, while ingenious and inventive. The end of the unending battles is rapprochement, armistice. Tom retires hurt, never having defeated Jerry, the mouse indomitable.

The dynamic of mice and men has now moved into a totally new arena. Mouse as proxy for human social philosophy is no longer the only facet of the relationship. We now control the output of mice by manufacturing our own designer rodents. As they reach sexual maturity in six weeks, live on average for only 2.6 years, and breed three generations within a year, mice are a perfect testing ground for genetic pathways. In reality, they are easy to manipulate, especially genetically, so a whole plethora of engineered mice are now available to suit all requirements. White, black, hairless, skinless, round, square, fat and thin are just a few of the models. It seems that we are also able to engineer the personality and behaviour of the mouse, so that bored, happy and drunk ones, and even rock-music fans, are not uncommon. We sensitise the nauseousness of those created with pathological defects by christening them with rather poetic names that reflect their genetic dysfunction. Hence we have, among others, Fidget, Shiver, Stargazer (which, due to a defect of the inner ear, is forced continually to look upwards) and Punk Rocker (a black dude who constantly bangs his head against his container). The tailor-made mouse provides an almost perfect model for studying human ailments.

Almost, but not exactly. Mice, after all, are not men. However, the "fuzzy test tubes", as they are known, are hot property. About 25 million are bred every year, mostly in the US, generating an annual business of more than £150m. "TG2576", genetically engineered to develop Alzheimer's disease, can cost as much as £500,000. Property with such a price tag needs to be protected. Hence the rush of patents currently being sought for a whole range of GM rodents. The so-called "Oncomouse", modified to develop human cancer traits, has already been granted a patent in the US, Canada, Europe and Japan. The patent argues that it is "a specific form of life that does not exist in nature".

It is possible that it is not we who have created the mice, but the mice who have created us. As The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy tells us, the Earth and everything therein is no more than an experiment established by white mice to see how it would turn out - the answer was badly. While the mouse has never been responsible for contagion visited on us, we have nevertheless visited all manner of contagion on mice, the laboratory animal par excellence. We have become so completely and genetically analogous that what ails the mouse leads to what cures us.

Hardly surprising, then, that our nearest companion in this cyber-age is the mouse, the ultimate helpmate of our technological future utopia. Turn on any computer, and you release a mouse. It nestles by your hand, compliant to your every wish and command, ever ready to summon up, at the merest click of its whiskers, anything and everything you might desire. The quondam et futuris mouse - the once and future mouse, without whom we are nothing.

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