Genome cartography through domain annotation.docVIP

/2001/2/7/comment/2006.1 Opinion Genome cartography through domain annotation Chris P Ponting and Nicholas J Dickens Address: MRC unctional Genetics Unit, University of Oxford, Department of Human Anatomy and Genetics, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QX, UK. Correspondence: Chris P Ponting. E-mail: Chris.Ponting@anat.ox.ac.uk Published: 3 July 2001 GenomeBiology 2001, 2(7):comment2006.1–2006.6 The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at /2001/2/7/comment/2006 ? BioMed Central Ltd (Print ISSN 1465-6906; Online ISSN 1465-6914) Abstract The evolutionary history of eukaryotic proteins involves rapid sequence divergence, addition and deletion of domains, and fusion and fission of genes. Although the protein repertoires of distantly related species differ greatly, their domain repertoires do not. To account for the great diversity of domain contexts and an unexpected paucity of ortholog conservation, we must categorize the coding regions of completely sequenced genomes into domain families, as well as protein families. Delivery of the human genome draft sequence by publicly funded [1] and corporate [2] projects promises to precipitate significant biomedical advances this century. To rise to this challenge, biologists must become adept at navigating the vast expanses of genomic DNA data that may seem, at first glance, to be devoid of features. Yet lying beneath this facade of uniformity are rich veins of knowledge awaiting exploita- tion. Surveying and signposting this apparently bland genomic landscape should guide investigators towards exper- iments that address specific hypotheses about gene function. association of a gene with relevant experimental findings. Websites such as LocusLink [4], GeneCards [5], euGenes [6] and Ensembl [7] (see Table 1) integrate information from diverse sources relevant to individual human genes. Thus one may browse sequence