I believe there are only a few hundred complete sequenced genomes. I realize you mainly sequence the genome of an organism that is heavily involved in research, eg. model organisms such as E.coli, yeast, etc.

 

But my question is this: If I discover a new bacterium tmrw, what would be the time and cost to sequence its genome?

 

(obviously will vary with equipment, but please give approx guidelines)

 

Thanks!

If you include shotgun-sequences there are far more than a few hundred. Most are not well annotated, though. But to your primary question, the prices have been going down rapidly in recent times. However, you have to consider that you do not only need the naked DNA, but you have to build libraries first.

Anyhow one of the cheapest ways for bacterial genomes atm is the use of a 454 sequencing system, and it will work fairly well if you already got genomes of somewhat related bacteria.

The costs will be around 20-25k$ if you do it yourself. Personell costs will add to it if you pay someone else to do it though. I assume that it will almost double the price, but I am not sure. I could find that out, but I assume that the question was academic in nature?

 

Forgot to add, the sequencing itself (assuming that DNA of sufficient quality and quantity is already present) will take around a week with the 454. Time for assembly varies, of course