‘What Is Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS)?
4 The answer to this question starts with the answer to another question—what is the
Whole genome sequence? All living things on Earth, including humans, ae largely built
according to instructions in a molecule called deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), Tn burnans
this DNA is found almost entirely in
structures called chromosomes inside
cour cells, Humans almost always
have 46 chromosomes, a pair of the
chromosomes namedl 1 through
22, along with two so-called sex
chromosomes, X and Y. Women have
two X chromosomes, men an X and
AY.) Our mothers and fathers gave
‘us one copy each of those 22 pairs
cof chromosomes and one copy of
sex chromosome.
5 Each chromosome is one very long DNA
molecule. This DNA molecule takes the
form ofthe famous “double helix” Think
of a ladder that has been wwisted into a
spital, The sides of the ladder are the
sides of the DNA molecule; the rungs of
the ladder make DNA special. Each rung.
{s made up of owo stall molecules, one
attached to each side of the DNA ladder
These small molecules are always one of
four types: adenine, cytosine, guanine,
Figure
Francis Crick English) and James Watson
(Americar) won the Nobel Prize for Medicine
Jn 1962 for this discovery of DNAs structure.
‘They had been working together at
Cambridge University in England, where they
dliscoveres the double helix structure. Crick
later moved to California, where he studied
brain research and died in 2004. Watson,
also moved tothe United States and was
Instrumental inthe Human Genome Project
16 The “whole genome sequence” lists all of
and thymine (called A, C, G, and 1). The secret of DNA is that Ais always attached to
T, and Cto G, These two molecule combinations—the ladder’s rungs—are called
‘base pairs." The discovery of this double helix structure in 953 made Prancis Crick
and James Wacson famous, particularly because, as they noted at the end of theiz very
short article announcing their discovery, the structure, and its possible “unzipping,”
provided a clear mechanism for DNA to be copied accurately as cells grow and divide.
The Lord ofthe Rings trilogy, written by
JRR Tolkien in 1937, sa fantasy novel
Itismade up of three books: The Fellowship
ofthe Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return
ofthe King. In total. a combined edltion is
about 1,200 pages ong,
the As, Cs, Gs, and Ts in a person's
chromosomes, staring with the two copies
of chromosome | and ending with the two
sex chromosomes. You can consider it a
book made up only of four letters (A, C, G,
and T) but about 64 billion of them,