Over the past decade, developed countries have launched several genome projects with the aim of cataloguing all the genes, obtaining genetic and physical maps of the genomes, and sequencing representative genomes from a variety of organisms. The pioneer of these genomic research efforts has been the Human Genome Project (HGP), which officially started in the USA in 1990; this was soon followed by initiatives in other countries (e.g. France, the UK and Japan). The HGP is progressing rapidly, and manyof its objectives have already been achieved ahead of schedule. The HGP guarantees a biotechnological revolution in the 21st century, not only in the development of new drugs and diagnostic tests in medicine, but also through the overflow of knowledge into areas such as agriculture and livestock production.
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