First complete sequence of an individual African genome

24.11.08 - 21:47 ... source : Sanger Institute

... Researchers at the Sanger Institute have announced that a study carried out in collaboration with Illumina scientists has yielded the first complete and publicly available sequence of an African individual human genome. The study, published in Nature, was executed using next-generation Illumina sequencing technologies to sequence the human genome with 99.9% accuracy. The DNA sequenced was taken from the HapMap project and belongs to an individual from the Yoruba of Ibadan, Nigeria. It is anticipated that advances in individual genome sequencing technologies will allow scientists to identify genetic differences between people that may contribute to differences in health and disease. Using new technologies to sequence the genome, scientists have been able identify 4 million single base changes or single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) - 26% of which had not been previously identified - and 400 000 larger scale v ...» Next (HTML)