Sequence analysis of genes and genomes

A major step towards understanding of the genetic basis of an organism is t he complete sequence determination of all genes in its genome. The developm ent of powerful techniques for DNA sequencing has enabled sequencing of lar ge amounts of gene fragments and even complete genomes. Important new techn iques for physical mapping, DNA sequencing and sequence analysis have been developed. To increase the throughput, automated procedures for sample prep aration and new software for sequence analysis have been applied. This revi ew describes the development of new sequencing methods and the optimisation of sequencing strategies for whole genome and cDNA analysis, as well as di scusses issues regarding sequence analysis and annotation. (C) 2000 Elsevie r Science B.V. All rights reserved.