Sequences, Sequences, and Sequences

60 YEARS OF POMC: From the prohormone theory to pro-opiomelanocortin and to proprotein convertases (PCSK1 to PCSK9)

“…Five decades later, a mutation at one amino acid of one PC, the Q152H in human PCSK9, in three large families may open up novel avenues of investigation in medical epidemiology and genetics of aging. We owe most of these developments to Frederick Sanger's lessons in 'Sequences, sequences, sequences' (Sanger 1988). What other surprising discoveries are to come of the prohormone theory and its offspring?…”

Concepts, Historical Milestones and the Central Place of Bioinformatics in Modern Biology: A European Perspective

“…With this technique, he went on to sequence human mitochondrial DNA (Anderson et al, 1981) and bacteriophage  (Sanger et al, 1982). These were landmark achievements (see Table 2), providing the first direct evidence of the phenomenon of overlapping gene sequences and of the non-universality of the genetic code (Sanger, 1988;Dodson, 2005). But it was automation of these techniques from the mid-'80s that significantly increased productivity, and began to make the human genome a realistic target.…”

“…Clearly, we have travelled a very long way since Jensen and Evans positioned a single amino acid (a terminal phenylalanine) in insulin (Jensen & Evans, 1935;Sanger, 1945;Sanger, 1988) and Sanger elucidated its complete sequence, the first of any protein (recall Table 2). In a story spanning something like 70 years, bioinformatics has given us the first 'complete' catalogues of DNA and protein sequences, including the genomes and proteomes of organisms across the entire Tree of Life; it has furnished the requisite software to help analyse biological data on an unprecedented scale; it has hence yielded the possibilities to understand more about evolutionary processes in general, our place in the Tree of Life in particular, and ultimately, a great deal more about health, disease and disease processes.…”

Growing up in the golden age of protein chemistry

“…This period is best described by Sanger in an autobiographical chapter (Sanger, 1988). In those days before automated amino acid analyzers and protein sequenators, methods for protein sequence analysis were primitive, and none existed for nucleic acid sequencing.…”