First female genome sequenced - May 27, 2008
The first DNA sequence of a human woman has been announced by the Leiden University Medical Centre.
In keeping the growing tradition of self-sequencing, a la Craig Venter, the subject of this sequencing was one of LUMC’s own employees: clinical geneticist Marjolein Kriek. “If anyone could properly consider the ramifications of knowing his or her sequence, it is a clinical geneticist,” says team leader Gert-Jan B van Ommen (press release in Dutch, English mirror on ScienceDaily).
There’s no publication of this genome yet and it doesn’t seem to be in GenBank. It’s also not yet clear why Kriek was selected, unless she was the only female member of Ommen’s team.
LUMC also claims that Kriek becomes the first European whose DNA has been sequenced. It says the sequence will be made public once sensitive information has been removed.
Van Ommen says the sequence will provide more insight into the X-chromsome, which is less variable than the Y. “It was time, after the sequencing of four men, to balance the sexes,” he says. “After Watson we thought it was nice to do Kriek.”
So far the news coverage is on the short side, we’ll update later.
Dutch News manages to get Kriek’s age and hair colour into its first line, something I don’t recall happening with Watson or Venter, although I may be being baldist on that score.
Image: Getty
