What genomes have been sequenced completely?
The small genomes of several viruses and bacteria and the much larger genomes of three higher organisms have been completely sequenced; they are bakers’ or brewers’ yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), the roundworm (Caenorhabditis elegans), and the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster). In October 2001, the draft sequence of the pufferfish Fugu rubripes, the first vertebrate after the human, was completed; and scientists finished the first genetic sequence of a plant, that of the weed Arabidopsis thaliana, in December 2000. Many more genome sequences have been completed since then. For information on published and unpublished genomes, see Genomes Online Database (GOLD).
In addition to the human genome, the genomes of about 800 organisms have been sequenced in recent years. These include the mouse Mus musculus, the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster, the worm Caenorhabditis elegans, the bacterium Escherichia coli, the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the plant Arabidopsis thaliana, and many microbes. Other resources for information on sequenced genomes: • DOE Joint Genome Institute — Human, plant, animal, and microbial sequencing. • GOLD — Genomes Online Database provides comprehensive access to information regarding complete and ongoing genome projects around the world. • Comprehensive Microbial Resource — A tool that allows the researcher to access all of the bacterial genome sequences completed to date. • Entrez Genome — A resource from the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) for accessing information about completed and in-progress genomes.
The small genomes of several viruses and bacteria have been completely sequenced. The much larger genomes of three higher organisms have also been sequenced. They are baker’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), the roundworm (Caenorhabditis elegans), and the fruit fly (Drosophila melanogaster). See TIGR for a table of published and unpublished microbial genomes and chromosomes.
