Microbial genome sequencing

In the past few years a large number of clinically important bacteria, parasites, and fungi have been sequenced, and genomic data for many human pathogens will be available by the turn of the century (see box). Because many of the early sequencing efforts were funded by private industry, concerns were raised about ownership and freedom of access to the data generated by these projects. As sequencing technology has become more refined and efficient, however, the cost of such projects has fallen, and funding is increasingly being provided by government agencies and medical charities. This has greatly improved access to microbial sequence information, and data from most projects are deposited, often on a daily basis, on websites on the internet.

A comprehensive catalogue of all genome sequencing projects is provided by the Magpie Genome Sequencing Project List (www.mcs.anl.gov), and links to individual projects are also available at this site. Other useful resources include the website of the Institute for Genomic Research (www.tigr.org), which …