Mobile DNA: Finding Treasure in Junk

6. Role of bioinformatics in genome analysis

As DNA sequencing has improved, the number of species that have had at least one genome sequenced has expanded enormously. The genomes of an ever-growing number of individual human beings have been sequenced, including James Watson, Craig Venter, 2 Africans, and a Korean. In addition, the genomic DNA of 1000 other human beings is being sequenced, though most are presently scheduled for low coverage sequencing. (Coverage of 2–4 genomes of sequence (2–4x) is considered low coverage, while 40 genomes of sequence (40x) is considered high coverage.) The total number of human genomes sequenced as of September 2010 is >500. A large number of mammals and other vertebrates have had their genomes sequenced. ...