New technologies, such as fluorescent in situ hybridization, allow scientists to identify the location of specific pieces of DNA on a chromosome. The Human Genome Project is designed to speed this process once and for all by providing new tools and techniques that will enable scientists to find genes quickly and efficiently. The first of these tools are maps of each chromosome. Now very detailed, this map should enable researchers to pinpoint the location of a gene between any two markers. Another important step is to create what are called physical maps of each chromosome, a process that is also well under way.
Physical maps consist of overlapping pieces of DNA spanning an entire chromosome.
Once these maps are complete, investigators can localize a gene to a particular region of a chromosome by using a genetic map and then can simply go to the freezer, where the DNA for the physical map is stored, and pick out that piece to study rather than searching through the chromosomes all over again. The ultimate goal of the Genome Project is to decode, letter by letter, the exact sequence of all 3 billion nucleotide bases that make up the human genome. It will be a daunting task. Once the human genome sequence is completed, attention can shift from the job of finding genes, which will then simply be a matter of scanning a computer database, to understanding them. The ultimate goal of the Human Genome Project is to decode, letter by letter, the exact sequence of all 3 billion nucleotide bases that make up the human genome.