Initial view of the human genomic sequence

The vast amount of information that has recently become available with the release of the "working draft sequence, makes it possible to take an initia l, global look at the contents of the human genome, The draft genome sequen ce is the result of an international collaboration and was primarily genera ted from a physical map of the human chromosomes that covered 96 % of the e uchromatin portion of the genome. The sequence itself covers about 90%, and has been made available without restriction to the scientific community ev er since the beginning of the effort This sequencing project is of particul ar interest because it represents (1) the largest genome analyzed to date, (2) the first vertebrate sequence, and (3) the genome of our own species. W e discuss some scientific issues related to the generation and assembly of the data, and on kev observations derived from the initial analysis of the genome sequence.