Researchers at the BCM genome sequencing center in Houston are now using the information to discover the genetic basis for human disease, said Dr. Richard Gibbs, director of the BCM center and Dr. George Weinstock, co-director.

Sequencing chromosome 3 was also an international collaboration among teams from the United States (including Baylor College of Medicine in Houston), Germany and The People's Republic of China.

The lead author of the paper was BCM scientist Donna Muzny, but she and Dr. Steven Scherer, associate professor in the BCM Human Genome Sequencing Center, credit Dr. Huanming Yang and the Chinese sequencing group with playing a critical role in the effort. His group determined the DNA sequence of a portion of the chromosome and characterized important elements that regulate how the DNA is translated into proteins critical to the functioning of the cell.

Yang, of the Beijing Genomes Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and his colleagues also played host to an international sequencing consortium strategy meeting in 2001.

"Human genome sequencing presented a unique opportunity for China to join the international community. I salute all our friends and colleagues at the collaborating institutions for their contributions to this task and for their support of free data-sharing under the spirit of the Human Genome Project that is 'owned by all, done by all and shared by all," said Yang

"This work represents many years of collaborative effort and defines human chromosome 3 using state-of-the-art sequence quality and extraordinarily detailed manual annotation," said Gibbs.

The BCM Sequencing Center produced the seq
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Contact: Ross Tomlin
htomlin@bcm.edu
7-130-798-4710
Baylor College of Medicine
26-Apr-2006