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Ó³»­´«Ã½ researchers have sequenced and assembled the genome of Geomyces destructans, or white nose fungus, the pathogen involved in the death of over one million bats in the northeastern United States. They have made the genomic data public in an effort to aid those who hope to stop the spread of white nose syndrome, which threatens to destroy more bat populations.

The field of human genetics is in a state of transition. Less than ten years ago, sampling hundreds of sites in the genome was a costly and time-consuming undertaking that required researchers to design individual tests for every base that they wanted to identify. Today, scientists can peer at the genome at a higher resolution, sampling millions of sites at a fraction of the cost or sequencing across the whole genome instead of just a subset of sites.

Dramatic decreases in the time and cost of genome sequencing are pushing these powerful technologies ever closer to clinical use. Recent discoveries outlined in a paper published September 5 in the online edition of Nature Genetics provide an early glimpse at how DNA sequencing may become a standard part of medical care.