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Human Genome News, January 1991; 2(5)

DOE HGCC Discusses YACs and cDNAs

The DOE Human Genome Coordinating Committee (HGCC) met November 20 in Livermore, California. Discussion topics included yeast artificial chromosomes (YACs), cDNAs, the contractor-grantee workshop, and study section reviews.

Elbert Branscomb became the newest member of HGCC in October. Responsible for the computations and informatics effort at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Human Genome Center, Branscomb brings substantial informatics expertise to HGCC. He received his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Syracuse University in 1964. Sylvia Spengler is representing the Lawrence Berkeley Human Genome Center on the committee until the center's director is appointed.

For additional information about HGCC membership, please refer to Human Genome Quarterly 1(1): 3-4 (Spring 1989) and 1(3): 5 (Winter 1990).

YAC Goals

DOE roles regarding YACs include support of the following:

  • YAC distribution by contract.
  • Establishment of a new size-selected library in strains with many markers. A number of companies could handle this on a contract basis.
  • Basic YAC research, such as enhancement of transformation efficiency as it applies to library construction; testing would be required.

cDNA Initiative

Charles Cantor (HGCC Chair and Principal Scientist, DOE Human Genome Program) will contribute to the section of the Request for Proposals related to cDNAs. With coordinated exchanges of cDNAs among laboratories, cDNA mapping would cost about the same as creating STSs within random regions of the genome. The added benefit is that sequencing of cDNAs would yield important biological information early in the Human Genome Project. A major goal of the cDNA initiative is to establish STS sites within unique cDNA clones to aid the mapping effort. Suggested activities to support this goal include:

  1. Developing new libraries, both those normalized and those reduced by other techniques.
  2. Developing mapping tags, such as STSs; that is, conversion of DNA sequences to STSs.
  3. Mapping of cDNA/STSs to the chromosome.
  4. Tying maps, sequences, and STSs to a database.
  5. Initiating or significantly improving techniques to localize cDNAs to a chromosome or region.
  6. Exploring methods to produce a master cDNA set.

Other possible areas of support involve the usefulness of mouse cDNAs to map human regions and the impact of multigene families on mapping and STSs.

HGCC met December 4 in Bethesda, Maryland, to review study section results and to further discuss the DOE cDNA initiative with invited experts.

The next HGCC meeting will be in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on February 21, following the DOE Human Genome Program contractor-grantee workshop. Discussions will focus on progress and overall program coordination.

Reported by Sylvia J. Spengler
Executive Officer, HGCC

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Human Genome Program, U.S. Department of Energy, Human Genome News (v2n5).

Human Genome Project 1990–2003

The Human Genome Project (HGP) was an international 13-year effort, 1990 to 2003. Primary goals were to discover the complete set of human genes and make them accessible for further biological study, and determine the complete sequence of DNA bases in the human genome. See Timeline for more HGP history.

Human Genome News

Published from 1989 until 2002, this newsletter facilitated HGP communication, helped prevent duplication of research effort, and informed persons interested in genome research.