Meeting Highlights: 15th International Mouse Genome Conference

After the official opening of the meeting by Ian Jackson (MRC Human Genetics Unit, UK), John McPherson (Washington University, USA) gave his plenary lecture Mapping and sequencing the mouse genome. He started with a report on the status of 'the other genome' (human), stating that they now have y2.9 Gb of sequence, 1.75 Gb of which is 'finished' and 99% of which is aligned to the chromosomes. Chromosomes 22, 21, 20 and Y are complete; chromosomes 6, 7 and 14 are nearing completion. In spring, the mouse genome sequen-cing consortium achieved their initial aim of 2–3X coverage, they are now doing more shotgun sequencing with the aim of reaching 5–6X coverage. This data will be better for assembly and regulatory element discovery purposes. They are using a combination of whole genome and BAC shotgun data, but have not as yet decided on the optimal ratio. They anticipate being able to increase the amount of machine time spent on mouse as the human genome is completed. Their BAC fingerprinting is done using highly controlled, reproducible gels; markers are then used to build the map up from the binning data provided by the FPC program. The contigs are then mapped onto the mouse radiation hybrid map and the human draft, which has also helped with gap length estimation. The map currently consists of 300 000 clones in >700 contigs and should be finished by the end of this year. There are currently two BAC maps, one made at Washington University (http://genome. wustl.edu/gsc/mouse) and one at the Sanger Centre. The mouse genome data is benefiting from annotation and display right from the start, unlike the human genome data (http://mouse.ensembl.org). Ensembl mouse uses the Sanger map and includes comparisons with the human data. Work is underway to link the mouse and human Ensembl resources to allow users to move between the two genomes. They are aiming for >99% coverage by early 2003 and a complete draft by 2005. There is also a SNP discovery project using a selection of strains, which it is hoped will identify 50 000 SNPs. spoke about the status of the mouse genome sequence. At the moment the data stands between 2.75 and 3 Gb, which equates to 2.7X coverage. The sequence has been assembled into 650 000 contigs with an average length of 4.8 kb, 87% of these are anchored onto the BAC map. By February or March they …