Findings emerging from complete microbial genome sequences

Sixteen microorganisms, including one eukaryote, four archaeons, and 11 eubacteria, have been completely sequenced and published. More than 50 genomes are scheduled to be completed by the year 2000. This explosive growth of information is forcing change in many scientific disciplines (e.g. bioinformatics and molecular genetics), spawning new fields, and even changing the way scientific information is used and shared. Novel, global genome sequence comparisons seem dow to appear but the infrastructure for these projects is being built, and we expect exciting developments in the near future.