DOE to map expressed genes

Journal Article · Fri Nov 16 04:00:00 EST 1990 · Science (Washington, D.C.); (USA)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1126/science.2237439· OSTI ID:5922069

Roberts, L

The Department of Energy is launching a new effort to map and partially sequence all the expressed genes, or complementary DNAs, in the human genome. It's not a radical departure but rather a reorientation of the chromosome mapping effort that DOE is conducting as part of the Human Genome Project. DOE is proposing to scour clone collections, or libraries, to find all the cDNAs and then sequence a small stretch of each one, about 200 to 500 base pairs, to create a special type of marker known as a sequence-tagged site, or STS. Once the sequence tag is stored in a database, any researcher can quickly recreate that piece of DNA by using polymerase chain reaction techniques. The biggest technical obstacle is finding a complete set of cDNAs. DOE expects to support efforts to improve cDNA libraries and to sequence the expressed genes outside the national labs. As the cDNA markers are generated, they will then be turned over to the national labs- and to the mapping community-where they will be positioned along the human chromosomes. This will instantly pinpoint the location of all the genes. So far, only about 2,000 of the 50,000 to 100,000 human genes have been mapped by any technique.

• OSTI ID: 5922069
• Journal Information: Science (Washington, D.C.); (USA), Journal Name: Science (Washington, D.C.); (USA) Vol. 250:4983; ISSN SCIEA; ISSN 0036-8075
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

550400* -- Genetics
59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
ANIMALS
CHROMOSOMES
DNA
ENZYMES
GENETIC MAPPING
MAMMALS
MAN
MAPPING
NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS
NUCLEIC ACIDS
NUCLEOTIDYLTRANSFERASES
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PHOSPHORUS-GROUP TRANSFERASES
POLYMERASES
PRIMATES
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
TRANSFERASES
US DOE
US ORGANIZATIONS
VERTEBRATES