Comparative Genomics on the Rise

© 2003 Nature Publishing Group

Aligned nucleotides of the spurious ORF, YDR102C, are shown as stacked squares for the four species compared (S. cerevisiae, S. paradoxus, S. mikatae, and S. bayanus, respectively). Green represents a conserved position, yellow otherwise. In addition to the alignment gaps (white), and the abundant frame-shifting insertions (red), numerous in-frame stop codons are observed in the other three species. (From M. Kellis et al., Nature 423:241–54, 2003.)

Simple, fast-growing, and sexually reproducing, yeast have been a stalwart model for generations of geneticists. The first eukaryote sequenced nearly a decade ago, and amenable to high-throughput techniques, they have also led the charge in genomics study. Two papers published in 2003 affirmed a new claim in computational biology, marking the first time multiple eukaryotic genomes were aligned completely. Doing so set a new standard in comparative sequence analysis, with inevitable implications for annotating the human genome and peering ...