2: Genes and Genomes Check Access

The completion of the Human Genome Project and the development of new recombinant DNA methods have paved the way for dramatic progress in many areas of molecular biology and biotechnology. They have led to advances in molecular cloning, genome-wide mapping and mutation and polymorphism detection. Indeed, the development of these methods has also led to numerous genome projects while at the same time contributing to the development of bioinformatics for the analysis of genomes from many species both in health and disease. This rapid advance and automation of some of the enabling molecular methodologies and their applications are addressed in this chapter, which identifies the key processes in the understanding of genes and genomes.