Discuss, in detail, the genetic principles, status and future of the human genome project. Explain why, how, where, and who is going to benefit from this project and who will not.

THE HUMAN GENOME PROJECT

The Human Genome Project (HGP ) is one of the most ambitious scientific projects ever conducted around the world . The ultimate aim of the project was to sequence the human genome at its highest precision and accuracy and to identify every gene and associate it with a disease The idea of sequencing the human genome first came up at several scientific meetings in 1984 through 1986 , and eventually , the project was launched by the US Department of Energy and US National Institutes of Health (NIH ) in 1990 , subsequently creating

around 20 genome centers around the world . Most of the initial activities of the HGP for the first 10 years of implementation consisted of construction of genetic and physical maps , identification of markers for genomic sequences and ing of clones creating thru whole-genome shotgun or hierarchical shotgun sequence assemblies . The activities generally employed large-scale sequencing of bacterial artificial chromosomes (BACs large-insert cloning systems that contained pieces of DNA from one human male source (RPCI-11 . In February 2001 , the first two draft sequences of the human genome were reported , one from the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium (IHGSC , better known as the public group and the other from Celera Genomics , a privately owned genomic company The sequences facilitated systematic investigations by providing gene identification , protein architecture , region distribution and composition of DNA sequences of transposable elements , physical distance and frequency of gene polymorphisms . Such knowledge of the sequence composition and architecture of the human genome would help generate new technologies and tools to accelerate biomedical research

Unfortunately , the 2001 draft sequences represented only 90 of the euchromatic region of the human genome , which in turn , were interrupted by approximately 150 ,000 sequence gaps . In addition , certain DNA segments were either mis-aligned , poorly ed and simply harbored the wrong orientation within the genome . After three (3 ) additional years of hard-core sequencing and analysis , a near-complete sequence of the human genome was published in 2004 , now representing 99 of the euchromatic region of the human genome and interrupted by only 341 gaps

Currently , the HGP is working on the finished human genome sequence which will eventually facilitate identification of all human genetic polymorphisms associated with every disease , detection of all functional elements in the human genome , including genes , proteins , structural sequences and regulatory elements and characterization of protein functions and expression . Such tremendous scientific effort will greatly hasten biomedical researches around the world

References

International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium (2001 : Initial sequencing and analysis of the human genome . Nature , 409 :860-921

International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium (2004 : Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome . Nature , 431 :931-945

Craig Venter , J , Adam , M , Myers , E .W . et al (2001 : The sequence of the human genome . Science , 291 :1304-1351...