Genome Projects and Genome Sequencing

Genome projects are scientific endeavours aimed at determining the whole genome sequence of an organism (be it an animal, a plant, a fungus, a bacterium, an archaeon, a protist, or a virus) as well as annotating protein-coding genes and other essential genome-encoded properties. The genome sequence of an organism is made up of the DNA sequences of all of the organism's chromosomes. The Human Genome Project was a ground-breaking genome project that has already had a significant impact on research in the biological sciences and has the potential to spark a slew of medical and commercial innovations. The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international, collaborative scientific project whose goal was to map and comprehend all of a human’s genes completely.

The order of DNA nucleotides, or bases, in a genome—the order of As, Cs, Gs, and Ts that make up an organism's DNA—is determined through genome sequencing. Over 3 billion of these genetic letters comprise up the human genome. Today, high-tech devices are used to sequence DNA on a vast scale—the scale required for ambitious initiatives like sequencing a complete genome. Many prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms have benefited from genome sequencing initiatives, which have offered a plethora of information about gene identification. Proteomic research today faces the arduous task of assigning molecular, cellular, and physiological functions to the entire complement of proteins encoded by the genome.