chapter 10 Genomics.pptVIP

This was certainly an interesting finding, and it raised the question of how common this phenomenon would be. So far, major overlaps seem to be confined almost exclusively to viruses, which is not surprising because these simple genetic systems have small genomes in which the premium is on efficient use of the genetic material. Moreover, viruses have prodigious power to replicate, so enormous numbers of generations have passed during which evolution has honed the viral genomes. With the advent of automated sequencing, geneticists have added much larger genomes to the list of total known sequences. In 1995, Craig Venter and Hamifton Smith and colleagues determined the entire base sequences of the genomes of two bacteria: Haemophilus influenzae and Mycoplasma genitalium. The H. influenzae (strain Rd) genome contains l,830,137 bp and it was the first genome from a free-living organism to be completely sequenced. The M. genitalrum genome is the smallest of any known free-living organism and contains only about 470 genes. In April 1996, the leaders of an international consortium of laboratories announced another milestone: The 12-million-bp genome of bakers yeast (Saccbaromyces cerevrsiae) had been sequenced. This was the first eukaryotic genome to be entirely sequenced. Later in 1996, the first genome of an organism (Methanococcus janaschii) from the third domain of life, the archaea, was sequenced. Then, in 1997, the long-awaited sequence of the 4.6 million-bp E. coli genome was reported. This is only about one-third the size of the yeast genome, but the importance of E. coli as a genetic tool made this a milestone as well. In 1998, the sequence of the first animal genome, from the roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans, was reported. The first plant genome (from the mustard family member Arabidopsis thaliana) was completed in 2000. Also in 2000, the eagerly-awaited rough draft of the human genome sequence was announced. By 2001, this working draft of the human genome was pu