Which scientific discipline emerged primarily from the development of fast, affordable DNA sequencing methods?

• A. Genomics
• B. Histology
• C. Conservation ecology
• D. Plant breeding

Answer: (A)

The key idea is that fast, affordable DNA sequencing turned biology into genome-scale science. When reading entire genomes became practical at low cost, researchers could analyze all genes, regulatory elements, and variations across an organism’s DNA, rather than focusing on individual genes one by one. This shift—from studying parts of the genome to studying the genome as a whole—gave rise to genomics, a discipline dedicated to understanding the structure, function, and evolution of genomes at scale.

Histology is about tissue structure under the microscope. Conservation ecology studies how species interact with each other and their environments. Plant breeding relies on selecting and combining traits to improve crops, long before modern genome-scale sequencing.