Publication

The International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium published their analysis of the 'draft' sequence in February 2001; and the finished, 'gold standard' sequence in 2004.

A draft

In February 2001, Nature magazine published nearly 20 reports based on the human draft sequence produced by the Human Genome Project. The central paper - totalling more than 60 pages - looked at the method of generating the sequence of our genome, and gave a first overview of the evolution of our genome, analysis of the proteins specified by our genome, and the way the HGP will continue to work to produce a lasting legacy of our genome sequence.

A summary of findings would only skim the surface, but they included an estimate of our genome size (around 3,200,000,000 bases), containing a lower-than-expected estimate 30,000-40,000 genes that code for proteins (which has since been lowered again). Press releases from the papers can be found at the Sanger Institute's Human Genome Project (www.sanger.ac.uk/hgp).

In addition, there were research and review papers by groups from around the world, describing a huge range of topics from mapping the genome to understanding addiction. All used the free and unrestricted access to the human genome.

In the same week, Science magazine published the report from Celera genomics on their assembly of Celera and Human Genome Project data and analysis of the resulting sequence. Science also carried reports on analysis of the HGP sequence in the study of disease and gene activity.

Both the draft sequences of the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium and the private genome project run by Celera genomics contained gaps and ambiguities in the human sequence. However, the Science paper showed that the Celera and the HGP sequences were very similar and confirmed the estimated gene number and extent of variation between human genomes.