This week in Class we had the opprotunity to sequence a whole genome from a Vibrio bacterium and see how complicated it is to piece a genome together. This was using modern technology, and the “difficulties” we had where nothing in comparison to those that first sequenced a whole genome. By reading both the highly technical scientific research paper by Fleischmann, and then a commentary that put things in to more general terms by Nowak on the initial sequencing of the Haemophilus influenzas genome, I was able to get a glismpe into the historical moment of sequencing full genomes.
It was incredible to see paper with a genome mapped out and possible functions of each gene mapped with it, but while the Fleischmann’s article was impressive, I didn’t fully understand until I read the Nowak’s review. In his review he states the incredible discovery of there being no citric acid cycle and the idea that influenzas can pick up genes from the environment from other influenzas. It also sates how incredible it is that this project took six months rather then three years. I read that and thought, six months? We just sequenced an entire genome in one class period. That was when it hit me that todays technological advancements are incredible, and something the past would have look at in awe.
This whole experience makes me certainly consider what I have to look forward too in my future as a scientist, what new technology will come out? And how will people in the future be looking at the scientific articles of today?
