11.   He said biotechnology companies maintained their own private databases on gene sequences, failing to report them to the general library.

12.   If Celera and Perkin Elmer are first to identify a gene sequence with implications for drug development, they can file a patent.

13.   Incyte has created databases of gene sequences and expressions for humans, animals, microbes and plants that pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies use to create new drugs.

14.   Often they are patents on the process used to discover a particular gene sequence.

15.   On checking the gene sequences of the different groups of flies, Heberlein found that five previously identified genes appear to be linked to alcohol susceptibility and tolerance.

16.   One fear is that such information could be used to create germs that hurt only a particular ethnic group, by targeting a gene sequence unique to that group.

17.   Scientists have decoded the gene sequence of the E. coli bacterium, a discovery that could aid in deciphering how bacteria evolve.

18.   Some of us, however, thanks to abnormal gene sequence, have cells that produce particularly elastic forms of collagen.

19.   So the researchers suggest that a transgenic plant, with this gene sequence inactivated, could produce decaf coffee beans or tea leaves.

20.   The company contended that the gene sequence it had patented contained no mutations that would give rise to cancer or other disease.