What is the difference between a draft and a finished genome?
There is no universal consensus on these definitions as is discussed in “What is Finished, and Why Does it Matter” Mardis et. al. Genome Research. Vol. 12, Issue 5, 669-671, May 2002. The definitions below are generalized but may not apply to all circumstances. A finished sequence defines a highly-accurate genome assembly typically with less than 1 error for every 106 bases and contiguous sequences covering all reliably sequenced regions arranged in the appropriate order. The assembly has typically had gap closure via directed PCR and subsequent sequencing. A draft genome assembly typically results from computational assembly of shotgun reads and generally has not incorporated biochemical confirmation of the resulting assembly. The University of Maryland Center for Bioinformatics & Computational Biology has an excellent genome assembly primer covering the complexities of genome assembly.
