Genomics and Molecular Biology

Comparative Genomics

First, the vast numbers of species and the much larger size of some genomes makes the entire sequencing of all genomes a non-optimal approach for understanding genome structure. Second, within a given species most individuals are genetically distinct in a number of ways. What does it actually mean, for example, to "sequence a human genome"? The genomes of two individuals who are genetically distinct differ with respect to DNA sequence by definition. These two problems, and the potential for other novel applications, have given rise to new approaches which, taken together, constitute the field of comparative genomics.