my ($self, $sequence_id) = @_;

  my $sql = "SELECT sequence.sequence FROM sequence WHERE sequence_id = ?";
  my $sth = $self->prepare($sql);
  $sth->execute($sequence_id);

  my ($sequence) = $sth->fetchrow_array();
  $sth->finish();
  return $sequence;
}

#
# STORE METHODS
#
################

  my ($self, $sequence) = @_;
  my $seqID;

  return 0 unless($sequence);

  my $dcs = $self->dbc->disconnect_when_inactive();
  $self->dbc->disconnect_when_inactive(0);

  #27/4/2009 kb3 Commented out the following lines so that we no longer check if 
  #a sequence already exists since this can take a very long time for the 2X 
  #genomes. May end up with duplicate sequences but we expect this to be rare.
 # $self->dbc->do("LOCK TABLE sequence WRITE");
  
  #my $sth = $self->prepare("SELECT sequence_id FROM sequence WHERE sequence = ?");
  #$sth->execute($sequence);
  #($seqID) = $sth->fetchrow_array();
  #$sth->finish;
  #unless($seqID) {
    my $length = length($sequence);

    my $sth2 = $self->prepare("INSERT INTO sequence (sequence, length) VALUES (?,?)");
    $sth2->execute($sequence, $length);
    $seqID = $sth2->{'mysql_insertid'};
    $sth2->finish;
  #}
  
  #$self->dbc->do("UNLOCK TABLES");
  $self->dbc->disconnect_when_inactive($dcs);
  return $seqID;
}


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