Briefs

From GenomeWeb: NEW YORK, Aug. 9 - The human genome is littered with spare parts, according to a new analysis by geneticists from Case Western Reserve University and Celera Genomics.

Genetic scientists have long known about gene-segment duplication, the process by which copied shards of DNA break off and wander into a new position in the genome. Sometimes, disease is the result. More often, the replica genes cause no immediate harm, and eventually wind up modified by evolution or "silenced" altogether.

This biological phenomenon has been a major frustration for gene sequencers, since the assembly programs designed to match overlapping fragments of DNA are easily confused by the thousands of duplicate or near-duplicate segments that lurk in the human genome.

To solve this problem, the Case Western team, led by Jeff Bailey and Evan Eichler, devised an algorithm to pinpoint these copies in Celera's whole genome-shotgun data.

They identified nearly 9,000 segments of duplicated DNA, ranging from tens to hundreds of kilobases. By this calculation, copies account for at least 5 percent of the human genome.

The research appears in the Aug. 9 Science.

See http://www.genomeweb.com/articles/view.asp?Article=200289132337