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Human genomics

The end of the start for population sequencing

Nature volume 526, pages 52–53 (2015)Cite this article

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In the final phase of a seven-year project, the genomes of 2,504 people across five continental regions have been sequenced. The result is a compendium of in-depth data on variation in human populations. See Articles p.68 & p.75

The human genome comprises three billion bases, of which millions differ between any two genomes from different people. The 1000 Genomes Project, which was set up in 2008, aimed to study this variation in at least this many people, and in doing so to provide a solid foundation on which to build an understanding of genetic variation in the human population. Early work from the pilot phase of the project provided preliminary data sets and gave the first details about methods for analysing these data. In this issue of Nature, the 1000 Genomes Project publishes its final two papers1,2, which analyse 2,504 genomes from 26 populations, and provide the most comprehensive view of global human variation so far.

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References

  1. The 1000 Genomes Project Consortium. Nature 526, 68–74 (2015).

  2. Sudmant, P. H. et al. Nature 526, 75–81 (2015).

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  3. Alkan, C., Coe, B. P. & Eichler, E. E. Nature Rev. Genet. 12, 363–376 (2011).

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  4. UK10K Consortium. Nature http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature14962 (2015).

  5. The 1000 Genomes Project Consortium. Nature 491, 56–65 (2012).

  6. www.internationalgenome.org

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ewan Birney is at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, European Bioinformatics Institute, Cambridge CB10 1SD, UK.,

    Ewan Birney

  2. Nicole Soranzo is at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton CB10 1HH, UK, and at the School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge, UK.,

    Nicole Soranzo

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  1. Ewan Birney
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  2. Nicole Soranzo
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Ewan Birney or Nicole Soranzo.

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Competing interests

E.B. is a paid consultant for Oxford Nanopore Technologies, a sequencing technology company.

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Genomics: In search of rare human variants

Nature Collection on The 1000 Genomes Project

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Birney, E., Soranzo, N. The end of the start for population sequencing. Nature 526, 52–53 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/526052a

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