ABSTRACT
There have been tremendous advances in the mapping of genomes, the most notable
being the recent completion of the human genome project (i.e. the sequencing of the
human genome). The completion of these projects allows for isolation and manipu-
lation of individual genes, and by cataloguing all genes in an organism we can start
to take new approaches to answering some of the mysteries surrounding genomes,
such as the function of non-coding DNA and the co-regulation of the use of genes. In
addition, by knowing how genes work together to give rise to observed phenotypes,
we can potentially produce medicines that alter protein expression in specific tissues
so as to treat disease. Finally, if we know the location of disease genes, we can ad-
vise potential parents with regard to risk for disease or attempt to develop treatments
based on knowledge of the gene products. Knowledge of the location of the genes
along the genome is knowledge of the physical map of the organism. A genetic map
relates how close 2 loci on a genome are in terms of risk for a certain trait based on
knowledge of the allele at the other locus. Either sort of map provides information
about the locations of genes.
