Using oligonucleotide probe arrays to access genetic diversity

The goal of the Human Genome Project is to sequence all 3 billion base pairs of the human genome. Progress in this has been rapid; GenBank® finished April1997 with 843 million bases of sequence. The challenge to the scientific community is to understand the biological relevance of this genetic information. In most cases the sequence being generated for any single region of the genome represents the genotype of a single individual. A complete understanding of the function of specific genes and other regions of the genome and their role in human disease and development will only become apparent when the sequence of many more individuals is known.