A novel resource for the study of genes expressed in the adult human retina.
OBJECTIVE
To reconstruct the transcriptional profile of the human adult retina and the genomic map of the genes expressed in this tissue.


METHODS
Original software was used for the retrieval and analysis of records from UniGene (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih. gov/UniGene/) pertaining to selected cDNA libraries from adult human retina.


RESULTS
The 4974 genes reported so far to be expressed in retina were included in a catalog available on the Internet. For each entry, an estimation of the level of expression of the corresponding gene in the retina was provided. A high-resolution genomic map of the human retina was built up by inclusion of 3152 genes showing a precise and unique map assignment. The correspondence was established between 53 gene-orphan retinal diseases and clusters of genes expressed in the retina.


CONCLUSIONS
The in silico reconstruction of the transcriptional profile of the adult human retina provides preliminary information on the pattern of genomic expression in this tissue. The chromosomal location of many retinal genes, combined with their expression data, should speed up the identification of genes involved in retinal diseases.
Bortoluzzi
S
S
Department of Biology, University of Padua, Italy.
d'Alessi
F
F
Danieli
G A
GA
D000328:Adult; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods; D018076:DNA, Complementary / Q000032:analysis; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D005136:Eye Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D015870:Gene Expression; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D012160:Retina / Q000737:chemistry*; D012984:Software
D018076:DNA, Complementary; D005136:Eye Proteins