Online Issues
<< All Back-issues
<< This Issue's Table of Contents
ILAR Journal V39(2/3) 1998
Comparative Gene Mapping
John L. VandeBerg and Jennifer A. Marshall Graves
This compendium on comparative gene mapping contains an overview, a note on comparative gene mapping databases, 3 papers on chromosome painting, 16 papers on gene maps of a species or group of species, and 2 posters of comparative maps. The papers are restricted to gene maps of mammals, birds, and fishes. Never before has such an extensive array of papers on comparative gene mapping been assembled in l place and at I time. Rather than publish these papers in 2 separately bound issues of ILAR Journal, we chose to combine them in a double issue to facilitate their use in making comparisons among gene maps.
Our efforts to secure authors for a few species that we had hoped to include in this compendium were unsuccessful. Particularly notable in its absence is the rapidly developing zebrafish gene map. We are pleased, however, to direct the attention of the reader to 2 recently published overviews about the zebrafish gene map (Nature Genetics 18:338-343, 1998; Nature Genetics 18:345-349, 1998).
The most recent compendium of information on comparative gene mapping was published in 1996 (Mammalian Genome 7: 717-734). In 2 yr, the literature in this area has expanded exponentially. This rapid development of the gene maps of mammals, birds, and fishes reflects the importance of animal gene maps for answering longstanding questions about evolution, for using animal models in biomedical research, and for improving livestock species. Although comparative gene mapping has been conducted for decades, only recently have the necessary technologies, many developed in and adapted from the human genome program, become available for efficient and rapid construction of gene maps of diverse species.
The human genome program has provided another impetus for constructing gene mapping of other animals, because the maps of animals often lead to the discovery of new genes that can almost immediately be located on the human gene map by virtue of conserved chromosomal segments. Thus, not only has the human genome program provided the impetus and technologies for rapidly mapping the genes of selected animal species, but the animal gene maps have in turn made many significant contributions to identifying previously unknown genes and localizing them on the human genome map.
To facilitate comparison of thc gene maps of the species or group of species, each author or group of authors was asked to address the following questions:
- Why map this species (or group of species)?
What is the status of the map(s)?
What approaches have been used to generate the map?
What contributions has the map already made to scientific advances?
What future contributions are envisioned?
How can biologists exploit this map?
Their responses provide a snapshot in time of the perspectives of comparative gene mappers and the characteristics of the respective gene maps that they are developing.
The pace of comparative gene mapping can be expected to continue accelerating in the years ahead, so this compendium will soon be outdated. But for the present time and for the immediate future, it should serve the scientific community well as a landmark publication in comparative gene mapping
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We thank Josephine Fletcher for her skilled assistance in editing some of the manuscripts in this compendium. We also thank the Robert J. Kleberg, Jr. and Helen C. Kleberg Foundation for providing a grant that supported the development and printing of this double issue of ILAR Journal and of the gene map posters included in it.
Copyright © 2008. National Academy of Sciences.
All rights reserved.
500 Fifth St. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20001.
Terms of Use and Privacy Statement