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(Hypertension. 2000;36:469.)
© 2000 American Heart Association, Inc.

Editorial

On the Sequencing of the Human Genome

Richard N. Re

From the Alton Ochsner Medical Foundation, New Orleans, La.

Correspondence to Richard N. Re, MD, Alton Ochsner Medical Foundation, 1516 Jefferson Hwy, BH 511, New Orleans, LA 70121-2484.

Key Words: Editorials • genetics • genes

	Introduction

 
Philosophy is the product of wonder... . the romance of human thought."¹

Two papers in the current issue of Hypertension, "Evidence for a Gene Influencing Blood Pressure on Chromosome 17: Genome Scan Linkage Results for Longitudinal Blood Pressure Phenotypes in Subjects from the Framingham Heart Study" by Levy et al and "Possible Locus on Chromosome 18q Influencing Postural Systolic Blood Pressure Changes" by Pankow et al use genomic markers and epidemiological studies to identify candidate loci for involvement in human hypertension.^{2 3} This work is representative of the current state of genetic research into polygenic conditions. Although neither study conclusively identifies a gene that plays a role in hypertension, these studies, in combination with many similar efforts, presage an important new chapter in the investigation and treatment of human disease. Progress in this area will probably come rapidly in large part because of the methodological and technical advances that are now occurring, including those in genome sequencing. Indeed, the successful sequencing of a prototypical human genome was recently announced. Finishing touches, perhaps more laborious than some may think, are now being applied. What are the implications of this achievement? Is it more than simply the next logical step in a process of scientific discovery that began in earnest almost 50 years ago? Is it, as some have implied, as much hype as achievement given the complex nature of polygenic traits?⁴

With increasing frequency over the last half millennium, science has produced theories and results that manifestly changed the way humankind . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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