Whole genome sequencing

Whole genome sequencing (also known as WGS, full genome sequencing, complete genome sequencing, or entire genome sequencing) is the process of determining the complete DNA sequence of an organism's genome at a single time. This entails sequencing all of an organism's chromosomal DNA as well as DNA contained in the and, for plants, in the chloroplast.

Whole genome sequencing has largely been used as a research tool, but is currently being introduced to clinics. In the future of personalized medicine, whole genome sequence data will be an important tool to guide therapeutic intervention. The tool of gene sequencing at SNP level is also used to pinpoint functional variants from association studies and improve the knowledge available to researchers interested in evolutionary biology, and hence may lay the foundation for predicting disease susceptibility and drug response.

Whole genome sequencing should not be confused with DNA profiling, which only determines the likelihood that genetic material came from a particular individual or group, and does not contain additional information on genetic relationships, origin or susceptibility to specific diseases. In addition, whole genome sequencing should not be confused with methods that sequence specific subsets of the genome - such methods include whole exome sequencing (1% of the genome) or SNP genotyping (<0.1% of the genome). Almost all truly complete genomes are of microbes; the term "full genome" is thus sometimes used loosely to mean "greater than 95%". The remainder of this article focuses on nearly complete human genomes.

The DNA sequencing methods used in the 1970s and 1980s were manual, for example Maxam-Gilbert sequencing and Sanger sequencing. The shift to more rapid, automated sequencing methods in the 1990s finally allowed the sequence of whole genomes.

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