An essential component of functional genomics studies is the sequence of DNA expressed in tissues of interest. To provide a resource of bovine-specific expressed sequence data and facilitate this powerful approach in cattle research, four normalized cDNA libraries were produced and arrayed for high-throughput sequencing. The libraries were made with RNA pooled from multiple tissues to increase efficiency of normalization and maximize the number of independent genes for which sequence data were obtained. Target tissues included those with highest likelihood to have impact on production parameters of animal health, growth, reproductive efficiency, and carcass merit. Success of normalization and inter-and intralibrary redundancy were assessed by collecting 6000-23,000 sequences from each of the libraries (68,520 total sequences deposited in GenBank). Sequence comparison and assembly of these sequences was performed in combination with 56,500 other bovine EST sequences present in the GenBank dbEST database to construct a cattle Gene Index (available from The Institute for Genomic Research at http://www.tigr.org/tdb/tgi.shtml). The 124,381 bovine ESTs present in GenBank at the time of the analysis form 16,740 assemblies that are listed and annotated on the Web site. Analysis of individual library sequence data indicates that the pooled-tissue approach was highly effective in preparing libraries for efficient deep sequencing.The rapid progress of genomic research in diverse organisms such as yeast, fruit flies, nematodes, mice, and humans has been driven by a combination of mapping, sequencing, and identification of expressed portions of each genome. Progress in these areas has lagged in the livestock species, limiting the use of functional genomics approaches to current problems in production-animal agriculture. Resources for a public effort to sequence the genomes of livestock species are not currently available. However, more modest sequencing efforts aimed at cDNA libraries have substantial value to the research community, especially when combined with mapping efforts to produce comparative maps with other mammalian species. Comparative maps make use of the general conservation of synteny between mammals and allow the livestock community to tap into the wealth of information generated in the human genome effort.To provide a resource of livestock-specific expressed sequence data to facilitate proteomics and functional genomics approaches in animal science, an EST-sequencing program was initiated with the aim to maximize the efficiency of obtaining sequence from the highest possible number of independent genes. Four normalized bovine cDNA libraries specifically designed for this task were produced and arrayed for high-throughput sequencing. To make the data more accessible and useful, assembly and annotation analyses were performed and an interactive Web site constructed by The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR) to view and analyze bovine genes. We report the construction of this Cattle Gene Index and assessment ...