The National Institutes of Health Mammalian Gene Collection (MGC) Program is a multiinstitutional effort to identify and sequence a cDNA clone containing a complete ORF for each human and mouse gene. ESTs were generated from libraries enriched for full-length cDNAs and analyzed to identify candidate full-ORF clones, which then were sequenced to high accuracy. The MGC has currently sequenced and verified the full ORF for a nonredundant set of >9,000 human and >6,000 mouse genes. Candidate full-ORF clones for an additional 7,800 human and 3,500 mouse genes also have been identified. All MGC sequences and clones are available without restriction through public databases and clone distribution networks (see http:͞͞mgc.nci.nih.gov).T he gene content of the mammalian genome is a topic of great interest. While draft sequences are now available for the human (1, 2), mouse (www.ensembl.org͞Mus musculus), and rat (http:͞͞hgsc.bcm.tmc.edu͞projects͞rat) genomes, the challenge remains to correctly identify all of the encoded genes. Difficulty in deciphering the anatomy of mammalian genes is due to several factors, including large amounts of intervening (noncoding) sequence, the imperfection of gene-prediction algorithms (3), and the incompleteness of cDNA-sequence resources, many of which consist of gene tags of variable length and quality. Full-length cDNA sequences are extremely useful for determining the genomic structure of genes, especially when analyzed within the context of genomic sequence. To facilitate geneidentification efforts and to catalyze experimental investigation, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) launched the Mammalian Gene Collection (MGC) program (4) with the aim of providing freely accessible, high-quality sequences for validated, complete ORF cDNA clones. In this article, we describe our progress toward the goal of identifying and accurately sequencing at least one full ORF-containing cDNA clone for each human and mouse gene, as well as making these fully sequenced clones available without restriction. Materials and MethodscDNA Library Production. MGC cDNA libraries were prepared from a diverse set of tissues and cell lines, in several different vector systems, by using a variety of methods. Vector maps and details of library construction are available at http:͞͞mgc. nci.nih.gov͞Info͞VectorMaps. The complete sequences for each of the MGC vectors can be found at http:͞͞image.llnl.gov͞ image͞html͞vectors.shtml. The catalog of MGC cDNA libraries can be accessed at http:͞͞mgc.nci.nih.gov.

The National Institutes of Health's Mammalian Gene Collection (MGC) project was designed to generate and sequence a publicly accessible cDNA resource containing a complete open reading frame (ORF) for every human and mouse gene. The project initially used a random strategy to select clones from a large number of cDNA libraries from diverse tissues. Candidate clones were chosen based on 5'-EST sequences, and then fully sequenced to high accuracy and analyzed by algorithms developed for this project. Currently, more than 11,000 human and 10,000 mouse genes are represented in MGC by at least one clone with a full ORF. The random selection approach is now reaching a saturation point, and a transition to protocols targeted at the missing transcripts is now required to complete the mouse and human collections. Comparison of the sequence of the MGC clones to reference genome sequences reveals that most cDNA clones are of very high sequence quality, although it is likely that some cDNAs may carry missense variants as a consequence of experimental artifact, such as PCR, cloning, or reverse transcriptase errors. Recently, a rat cDNA component was added to the project, and ongoing frog (Xenopus) and zebrafish (Danio) cDNA projects were expanded to take advantage of the high-throughput MGC pipeline.

Loss of the short arm of chromosome 8 is a common event in prostatic neoplasms. Previous studies indicate that there may be up to three separate tumor suppressor genes on chromosome arm 8p, based on patterns of allelic loss. The responsible gene or genes have yet to be identified. In the present study, we used laser-capture microdissection of primary human prostate tumors and 17 microsatellite markers across chromosome band 8p21 to determine a minimal deletion interval. From an initial set of 120 cases, three tumors contained overlapping interstitial deletions on chromosome band 8p21. The three cases define an internally consistent minimal candidate tumor suppressor gene interval of approximately two megabases.

The relationship between gene expression profiles and cellular behavior in humans is largely unknown. Expression patterns of individual cell types have yet to be precisely measured, and, at present, we know or can predict

The relationship between gene expression profiles and cellular behavior in humans is largely unknown. Expression patterns of individual cell types have yet to be precisely measured, and, at present, we know or can predictThe work of C. P. was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under contract W-7405-Eng-43.

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This study examines the effect of muscimol, a high affinity, specific gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) agonist, on glucose-stimulated somatostatin and insulin release from the isolated, perfused rat pancreas. Perfusion with low glucose (50 mg/dl) conditions resulted in basal somatostatin release of 46 +/- 4 pg/ml. Basal insulin release was less than 20 microU/ml. High glucose (300 mg/dl) conditions stimulated somatostatin and insulin release. Steady-state levels of somatostatin and insulin release under high glucose conditions were 425 +/- 12 pg/ml and 419 +/- 18 microU/ml, respectively. Perfusion with medium containing 1 microM muscimol inhibited glucose-stimulated somatostatin release by 38%, whereas the course of glucose-stimulated insulin release was unaffected. Tentative conclusions from this study are (1) that GABA is potentially a modulator of islet somatostatin but not insulin release, and (2) the fact that somatostatin, an inhibitor of insulin, can be suppressed 38% without coincidental increase in insulin release seems to indicate that, under high glucose conditions, somatostatin is without a significant paracrine effect on the beta-cells.

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