Prokaryotic Genomes: The Hidden Code

Abstract

It is evident that biology has entered a new period, sometimes called the genomics era. Genomic technologies involve efficient, high-throughput data collection and analysis; improved methodologies and technologies have allowed the generation of unprecedented quantities of biological information in the form of nucleotide sequence from a wide variety of species. The availability of whole genome sequence data has, in turn, allowed other areas of functional genomics to accelerate. Whole genome RNA and protein expression studies and protein–protein interactions maps, catalogs of essential genes, and the identification of genes required for establishment of disease are being realized as a result of genomic approaches.