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Genome sequencing

A view of Mount Drosophila

Nature volume 404, pages 442–443 (2000)Cite this article

Biologists live in privileged times. In the next few years, the complete genome sequences of representatives from all the major groups of organisms on Earth will be determined. Like a range of mountains emerging from cloud, successively larger and larger genomes can now be seen in their entirety, as each major genome project reaches its goals. Every one of these projects creates a gigantic and breathtaking archive of solid data and new information, which can be analysed in detail for decades to come. Nothing like this has happened in previous scientific history, or is likely to happen again.

Technical issues will not be discussed further here, but are especially important in view of the whole-genome shotgun strategy used for this project, in contrast to the clone-by-clone approach being used by the publicly funded human genome consortium. It is still unclear whether the shotgun strategy will work when applied to the much larger genomes of vertebrates and economically important plants4.

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Figure 1: In the limelight — the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster.

DR JEREMY BURGESS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

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  1. Department of Biochemistry, Genetics Unit, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, OX1 3QU, UK

    Jonathan Hodgkin

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  1. Jonathan Hodgkin
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Correspondence to Jonathan Hodgkin.

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Hodgkin, J. A view of Mount Drosophila. Nature 404, 442–443 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35006526

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