ABSTRACT
The automation of DNA sequencing in the early 1990s and the subsequent improvements in throughput and cost reduction over the next two decades have laid the foundations for DNA sequence data to be used routinely in biological research for studying the genomewide or individual gene structure, function and regulation. Sequence information is also used as a resource for tool and assay development, such as the design of marker sets for high-throughput screening of large animal or plant populations to identify genes underlying important traits. A genome sequence is an essential prerequisite for defining the complete gene catalogue of an organism and it provides a framework for identifying and understanding the function of variants associated with phenotypic traits of interest.
