China Completes Genome Sequencing WorkAfter nearly two years' hard work Chinese scientists have successfully completed the genome sequencing work, being the first one among six countries.Genes in chromosomes are small parts of DNA that controls development of human being's hereditary qualities. Each chromosome contains a DNA and each DNA contains four kinds of nucleotides. The different sequencing of nucleotides determines differences among genes, therefore the central task of Human Genome Program is to draft a sequence map of 3bn base pairs. The Program was initiated by the US and later joined by UK, France, Germany and Japan. China was the last one to join it in September 1999, and was assigned sequencing task of 30m base pairs of No 3 chromosome. By April 2000, Chinese scientists had first finished most of the work, with a sequencing coverage of over 90 percent. On June 26 the same year, the "working frame" of the Program was successfully mapped out. Despite economic and technological difficulties, Chinese scientists raced with time by first completing its part, with the coverage raised from 90 percent to 100 percent, and accuracy rate lifted from 99 percent to 99.99 percent. Our real workload means to sequence our part for eight times, head of the work team Yang Huanming said. An additional task has been assigned by international organizations due to China's excellent performance. The project will go for appraisal by relevant departments by end of this month, after that the 10th international conference on genome sequencing will be held in Hangzhou. The whole program is to be finished by April 2003. By PD Online staff member Li Heng |
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