DNA Sequences Are Widely Available

Rapid DNA sequencing technology has made trillions of DNA sequences from many different organisms available.

As a result, it is possible to compare the sequences of an enormous variety of closely or distantly related plants, animals, and microorganisms.

Chart, y-axis labeled Cumulative count of species numbered from 0 to 1300 in increments of 100, x-axis labeled Assembly date, x-axis entries as years from 2018 to 2023. From 2018 to 2020, the count increases steadily from under 50 to about 200, but steeply increases in subsequent years. 2021 has a count of about 400, 2022 has about 800, and 2023 reaches about 1200. — The number of different species’ genomes that have been sequenced over time by the Earth BioGenome Project, which aims to sequence all eukaryotic species. “Assembly date” indicates when the genome sequence was published in a database. (Credits: Blaxter et al. 2025, CC BY 4.0)