SEQUENCING THE GENOME OF PLASMODIUM-FALCIPARUM

Advances in microbial genomic sequencing have the potential to revolut ionize the control of infectious diseases. Recently, a consortium of r esearchers and funding agencies from the United States and Great Brita in have embarked on a project to sequence the genome from Plasmodium f alciparum, the most important cause of human malaria. The Malaria Geno me Sequencing Project has reached an important milestone with the comp letion of the entire DNA sequence and annotation of chromosome 2, a 95 0 kilobase chromosome of Plasmodium falciparum, This review article wi ll provide an overview of the malaria genome sequencing project, highl ight progress in the field of microbial sequencing, and suggest new di rections for future malaria research. Curr Opin Infect Dis 11:531-534. (C) 1998 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.