Incoming links: Cambridge Reference Sequence
DNA sequencing milestone Updated 2025-07-16
Most of these are going to be Whole-genome sequencing of some model organism:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_genome_sequencing#History lists them all. Basically th big "firsts" all happened in the 1990s and early 2000s.
- 1975 by Sanger et al.: 5 kbp of the single-stranded bacteriophage ΦX174 using Sanger's radiolabelling method
- 1981 by Sanger et al.: 17 kbp of human mitochondrial DNA via Sanger method, known as the Cambridge Reference Sequence
- 2003: Human Genome Project (3 Gbp)
Human Genome Project Updated 2025-07-16
As mentioned by Craig Venter in 100 Greatest Discoveries by the Discovery Channel (2004-2005), the main outcomes of the project were:
- it established the ballpark number of human genes
- showed that human genomes are very similar across individuals.
Important predecessors:
Human mtDNA Updated 2025-07-16
This was the first large part of the genome that was sequenced, in 1981: Cambridge Reference Sequence. Presumably they picked it because it is short and does not undergo crossover.
TODO: many places say "exactly" 16,569, it seems that variable number tandem repeat are either rare or don't occur!
- pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2881260/ 1989 reports a single length polymorphism