Within this context, it is important to consider the future of the HapMap Project. Currently, additional samples from the populations used to develop the initial HapMap, as well as samples from seven additional populations (Luhya in Webuye, Kenya; Maasai in Kinyawa, Kenya; Tuscans in Italy; Gujarati Indian in Houston, Texas, USA; Denver (Colorado) metropolitan Chinese community; people of Mexican origin in Los Angeles, California, USA; and people with African ancestry in the southwestern United States; http://ccr.coriell.org/Sections/Collections/NHGRI/?SsId=11) will be sequenced and genotyped extensively to extend the HapMap, providing information on rarer variants and helping to enable genome-wide association studies in additional populations. There are also ongoing efforts by many groups to characterize additional forms of genetic variation, such as structural variation, and molecular phenotypes in the HapMap samples. Finally, in the future, whole-genome sequencing will provide a natural convergence of technologies to type both SNP and structural variation. Nevertheless, until that point, and even after, the HapMap Project data will provide an invaluable resource for understanding the structure of human genetic variation and its link to phenotype.
