Plant & Animal Genomes XI Conference Plant & Animal Genomes XI ConferenceJanuary 11-15, 2003
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA
Workshop: Databases, Gene Systematics, and Nomenclature
Although the human and mouse genomes are sequenced, and the popular press and many others proudly trumpet the arrival of the post-genomics era, it is clear that for farm animals at least we are still firmly in the genomics age. Farm animal genome research has always followed pragmatic routes, concentrating its resources initially on linkage and other 'landmark' mapping methods, then using the outputs from these coarse mapping methods to identify Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) in various species under many different experimental and production conditions. We now have many tens, if not hundreds of fascinating and often commercially important QTL that we wish to investigate further. The aim of further studies is to identify the causative gene(s) and understand more fully their modes of action.
On the other hand, the Human Genome Project has concentrated on the generation of sequence and the identification of 'genes'. The function of those genes has been a largely secondary consideration until now, but the primary focus of 'post-genomics' research is to identify the biological role of each gene within the genome/transcriptome or proteome.
The two data sources - human genomic sequence and animal functional information - are highly complementary. The challenge for the coming years will be to develop systems that can integrate these data in a meaningful and flexible way. In this talk, I will firstly highlight some of our existing systems and then discuss a prototype of a new system we believe will be instrumental in meeting this challenge.