Principles of Genetics and Breeding

1.1.5.2 The Genomics Era

1972 - Walter Fiers and his team at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology of the University of Ghent ( Ghent , Belgium ) were the first to determine the sequence of a gene: the gene for bacteriophage MS2 coat protein.

1976 - Walter Fiers and his team determine the complete nucleotide-sequence of bacteriophage MS2-RNA

1977 - DNA is sequenced for the first time by Fred Sanger, Walter Gilbert, and Allan Maxam working independently. Sanger's lab sequence the entire genome bacteriophage Φ-X174.

1983 - Kary B Mullis discovers the polymerase chain reaction enabling the easy amplification of DNA.

1985 - First transgenic fish was produced, Zhu produced transgenic goldfish.

1989 - The human gene that encodes the CFTR protein was sequenced by Francis Collins and Lap-Chee Tsui. Defects in this gene cause cystic fibrosis .

1995 - The genome of Haemophilus influenzae is the first genome of a free living organism to be sequenced.

1996 - Saccharomyces cerevisiae is the first eukaryote genome sequence to be released.

1998 - The first genome sequence for a multicellular eukaryote, Caenorhabditis elegans, is released.

2001- First draft sequences of the human genome are released simultaneously by the Human Genome Project and Celera Genomics .

2003 - Successful completion of Human Genome Project with 99% of the genome sequenced to a 99.99% accuracy .