Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

This year's conference on Drosophila research illustrated well the current focus of Drosophila genomics on the comprehensive identification of functional elements in the genome sequence, including mRNA transcripts arising from multiple alternative start sites and splice sites, a multiplicity of noncoding transcripts and small RNAs, identification of binding sites for transcription factors, sequence conservation in related species and sequence variation within species. Resources and technologies for genetics and functional genomics are steadily being improved, including the building of collections of transposon insertion mutants and hairpin constructs for RNA interference (RNAi). The conference also highlighted progress in the use of genomic information by many laboratories to study diverse aspects of biology and models of human disease. Here we will review a few highlights of especial interest to readers of Genome Biology.