J. Craig Venter, famed geneticist (and member of The Scientist's linkurl:editorial board;http://www.the-scientist.com/about/themagazine/editorialboard/ ) who this summer made headlines with the development of a technique for creating a linkurl:synthetic;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/53341/ bacterial cell, once again hit the news with today's linkurl:publication;http://biology.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pbio.0050254 of his own genome in a paper in PLoS Biology. Venter's genome is not the only individual genome to be decoded; the genome of linkurl:James Watson;http://www.the-scientist.com/article/display/53415/, co-discoverer of the double helix, was decoded in February of this year. Scientifically, a complete read of a single genome allows researchers to compare differences between the two sets of chromosomes to determine which genes come from which parent. This "diploid genome" reveals that the genetic variation between the two sets (especially non-SNP variation) is about five times greater than researchers had previously thought, with 44 percent of genes contributed by one parent different from those from the other parent. A Washington Post linkurl:article;http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/03/AR2007090301106.html on...
New York Times
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