Apr. 21, 2010 Researchers have discovered 2,363 new DNA
sequences corresponding to 730 regions on the human genome by
using new approaches. These sequences represent segments of the
genome that were not charted in the reference map of the human
genome. "A large portion of those sequences are either missing,
fragmented or misaligned when compared to results from next-
generation sequencing genome assemblies on the same samples,"
said Dr. Evan Eichler, senior author on the findings published
April 19 in the advanced online edition of Nature Methods.
Eichler is a University of Washington (UW) professor of genome
sciences and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical
Institute. "These findings suggest that new genome assemblies
based solely on next-generation sequencing might miss many of
these sites." Dr. Jeffrey M. Kidd was lead author of the
article, which described the new techniques the research team
used to find some of the missing sequences. Kidd headed the
study while earning his Ph.D. at the Universi