International Mammalian Genome Society

The 16th International Mouse Genome Conference (2002)

Plenary Presentations * Oral Presentations *
Poster Presentations: Complex Genetics and Disease Modifiers * Developmental Genetics * Functional Genomics * Gene Discovery * Genetic Manipulations to Alter Gene Function * Mouse Models: Human Disease and Pharmacogenetics * Sequence Annotation and Comparative Analysis of Genomes *
Attendees * Sponsors * Table of Contents * Photographs * Awards

POSTER 103 - STANDARDIZED NOMENCLATURE FOR MOUSE, HUMAN, AND RAT:  A UNIFIED EFFORT

LJ Maltais
The Jackson Laboratory

Chu T, Drabkin H, Grant PL, Hill DP, McKenzie L, Ni L, Planchart AJ, Smith C, Blake JA, Eppig JT and the Mouse Genome Informatics Staff.
The Jackson Laboratory

The Mouse Genomic Nomenclature Committee (MGNC), under the auspices of the International Committee on Standardized Nomenclature for Mice, provides official nomenclature for mouse genes. Likewise, the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC) provides official nomenclature for human genes. MGNC and HGNC work collaboratively in establishing and revising standardized nomenclature for genes and gene groupings for the scientific community. This joint effort has significantly increased in the last few years as a result of the co-identification of human and mouse genes by both the research community and large scale sequencing centers. Yearly meetings between MGNC and HGNC address nomenclature needs such as streamlining the correspondence between the two nomenclature groups, achieving consistency in gene names, defining working terms (e.g, gene family vs gene grouping, splice variant), handling large scale annotation projects (e.g., FANTON 2, HAWK1), and exchanging nomenclature data files between the Mouse Genome Database (MGD) (http://www.informatics.jax.org/), Genew (http://www.gene.ucl.ac.uk/cgi-bin/nomenclature/searchgenes.pl) and LocusLink (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genome/guide/human/).MGNC is now also actively involved in a collaboration with the Rat Genome and Nomenclature Committee (RGNC) by: 1) assisting in the assignment of symbols to existing and new rat genes, 2) resolving nomenclature inconsistencies, and 3) writing joint nomenclature rules for mouse and rat strains. The exponentially growing field of standardized nomenclature enhances communication between scientists and facilitates the interaction between nomenclature committees for different species for comparative genomics. This unified effort of the MGNC, HGNC and RGNC will benefit greatly the various resources available to the scientific community.Supported by NIH grant HG00330