International Mammalian Genome Society

The 15th International Mouse Genome Conference (2001)

Table of Contents * Complex Genetics * Developmental Genetics * Gene Annotation * Gene Discovery * Genome Sequencing * Functional Genomics * Mutagenesis * Presentations * Verne Chapman Memorial Lecture

INTEGRATING COMPUTATIONAL AND HUMAN-CURATED ANNOTATIONS FOR THE MOUSE GENOME

Carol Bult
The Jackson Laboratory
600 Main Street
Bar Harbor, Maine 04609 USA

Co-Authors: King BL, Zhu YS, Baldarelli R, Ramachandran S, Bradt D, Cousins S, Beal J, Mani P, Kadin J and the Mouse Genome Informatics Staff
Institution: Mouse Genome Informatics Group, The Jackson Laboratory

Computational sequence annotation pipelines have been developed to support large-scale genome sequencing efforts. While computational annotations are useful as entry points into genome biology, they are usually not deeply integrated with existing biological knowledgebases. In contrast to these automated, computational annotation methods, community model organism database groups, such as the Mouse Genome Informatics (MGI) group (http://www.informatics.jax.org) rely heavily on the expertise of domain specialists to analyze and interpret biological data from diverse sources as part of an overall strategy to create and maintain a highly integrated and well-curated genome biology database for the laboratory mouse. A major challenge facing MGI, and all model organism databases, is how best to incorporate information from large and constantly changing genomic sequence data streams with curation processes that rely heavily on human reasoning and interpretation. The MGI group is developing an annotation infrastructure that combines both automated and human-centric curation processes. We will present an overview of this infrastructure and discuss issues relative to our current work on integrating and updating the annotations of the emerging mouse genome sequence with the wealth of genetic and phenotypic data about the laboratory mouse that is already available from MGI.