MOUSE GENOME INFORMATICS: RESOURCES FOR TODAY AND TOMORROW

The Jackson Laboratory 600 Main St. Bar Harbor, ME 04609 USA

Mouse Genome Informatics, http://www.informatics.jax.org, is the research community resource for genetic and genomic data about the laboratory mouse, and, as such, collects, integrates and presents both consensus and primary data. Resources accessible from our web site include the Mouse Genome Database (MGD), Gene Expression Database (GXD), the prototype Mouse Tumor Biology (MTB) Database, Rat Genome Data, and the Mouse Genome Sequence (MGS) integration project. MGD is an integrated data resource for mouse genetic, genomic, and biological information. MGD contains a variety of data, such as gene characterization and genomic structures, orthologous relationships between mouse genes and those of other mammalian species, and descriptions of mutant phenotypes. MGD is interconnected with other online resources including GenBank, SWISS-PROT, PubMed, OMIM, GDB, and FlyBase. GXD includes the Gene Expression Index, a searchable index of expression literature for mouse development; mouse cDNA and EST data; a large set of RT-PCR data; and immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, and Northern and Western blot data obtained from the literature. The MTB currently emphasis information on tumors originating in inbred strains of mice, including their pathology, incidence and latency, and genetic factors contributing to or associated with tumor development with links to related information in MGD and the JAX Mice database. The Rat Genome Data pages present results generated in the current U.S. Rat Genome Project. MGS is a planned informatics resource for connecting biologically significant features identified in mouse genomic sequence to existing biological knowledge in MGD and GXD, such as phenotype, expression data, and nomenclature. Supported by NIH Grants HG00330, HD33745, HL59826, HG01559, NIH, contract #97CSX022A, and DOE Grant DE-FG02-96ER62327.