The sequencing of human chromosome 3 at Baylor College represents the final stage of a multi-year project to sequence the human genome.
The researchers at the Baylor College of Medicine Human Genome Sequencing Center say they are now using the information to discover the genetic basis for human disease.
Sequencing chromosome 3 was an international collaboration among teams from the United States. Germany and The People's Republic of China.
The lead author of the paper was BCM scientist Donna Muzny, but she and Dr. Steven Scherer, associate professor in the BCM Human Genome Sequencing Center, credit Dr. Huanming Yang and the Chinese sequencing group with playing a critical role in the effort.
Yang and colleagues at the Beijing Genomes Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences determined the DNA sequence of a portion of the chromosome and characterized important elements that regulate how the DNA is translated into proteins critical to the functioning of the cell.
The BCM Sequencing Center has produced the sequences of chromosomes 3, 12 and X -- about 10 percent of the human genome.
The research appears in the journal Nature, in which the sequences of the other two chromosomes appeared in earlier reports.
Copyright 2006 by United Press International
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