As a base for human transcriptome and functional genomics, we created the "full-length long Japan" (FLJ) collection of sequenced human cDNAs. We determined the entire sequence of 21,243 selected clones and found that 14,490 cDNAs (10,897 clusters) were unique to the FLJ collection. About half of them (5,416) seemed to be protein-coding. Of those, 1,999 clusters had not been predicted by computational methods. The distribution of GC content of nonpredicted cDNAs had a peak at ∼58% compared with a peak at ∼42%for predicted cDNAs. Thus, there seems to be a slight bias against GC-rich transcripts in current gene prediction procedures. The rest of the cDNAs unique to the FLJ collection (5,481) contained no obvious open reading frames (ORFs) and thus are candidate noncoding RNAs. About one-fourth of them (1,378) showed a clear pattern of splicing. The distribution of GC content of noncoding cDNAs was narrow and had a peak at ∼42%, relatively low compared with that of protein-coding cDNAs.

With the goal of solving the whole-cell problem with Escherichia coli K-12 as a model cell, highly accurate genomes were determined for two closely related K-12 strains, MG1655 and W3110. Completion of the W3110 genome and comparison with the MG1655 genome revealed differences at 267 sites, including 251 sites with short, mostly single-nucleotide, insertions or deletions (indels) or base substitutions (totaling 358 nucleotides), in addition to 13 sites with an insertion sequence element or defective prophage in only one strain and two sites for the W3110 inversion. Direct DNA sequencing of PCR products for the 251 regions with short indel and base disparities revealed that only eight sites are true differences. The other 243 discrepancies were due to errors in the original MG1655 sequence, including 79 frameshifts, one amino-acid residue deletion, five amino-acid residue insertions, 73 missense, and 17 silent changes within coding regions. Errors in the original MG1655 sequence (o1 per 13 000 bases) were mostly within portions sequenced with out-dated technology based on radioactive chemistry.

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We designed observational surveys of controlled foraging trips of Baka hunter-gatherers in Cameroon to verify the 'wild yam question'-i.e. is it possible for human beings to live without agricultural products in a tropical rainforest?-and to examine their foraging lifestyle. We observed two 20-day trips during which no agricultural or commercial food except salt and pepper could be used. The first trip was conducted by six married couples in August, the short dry season, of the year 2003, and the second one by eight married couples in October, the rainy season, 2005. The Baka cooperators obtained 22 species and 43 vernacular names of food in all during both survey periods. No cooperators lost weight from any food shortage in both seasons. Energy intake per consumption-day was estimated at 2528-2865 kilocalories in the dry season, and at 2479-2777 kilocalories in the rainy season. Providing more than 60% of estimated energy intake in both seasons, wild yam tubers proved to be an essential food to enable a foraging life in tropical rainforests. From this survey we could find no evidence that it is impossible to live independently of agriculture in a tropical rainforest although it seemed that the cooperators paid a high energy cost to secure food, especially wild yam tubers. This study implies that a Paleolithic foraging lifestyle in the African tropical rainforest was very likely, although not easy, and that Paleolithic foragers may have been the ancestors of the present 'pygmy' hunter-gatherers.

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