RefSeq and LocusLink: NCBI gene-centered resources.
Thousands of genes have been painstakingly identified and characterized a few genes at a time. Many thousands more are being predicted by large scale cDNA and genomic sequencing projects, with levels of evidence ranging from supporting mRNA sequence and comparative genomics to computing ab initio models. This, coupled with the burgeoning scientific literature, makes it critical to have a comprehensive directory for genes and reference sequences for key genomes. The NCBI provides two resources, LocusLink and RefSeq, to meet these needs. LocusLink organizes information around genes to generate a central hub for accessing gene-specific information for fruit fly, human, mouse, rat and zebrafish. RefSeq provides reference sequence standards for genomes, transcripts and proteins; human, mouse and rat mRNA RefSeqs, and their corresponding proteins, are discussed here. Together, RefSeq and LocusLink provide a non-redundant view of genes and other loci to support research on genes and gene families, variation, gene expression and genome annotation. Additional information about LocusLink and RefSeq is available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/LocusLink/.
Pruitt
K D
KD
National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Building 38A Room 6N605, 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20894 USA. pruitt@ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Maglott
D R
DR
D000818:Animals; D001709:Biotechnology; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005796:Genes / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D007255:Information Services; D020407:Internet; D009316:National Institutes of Health (U.S.); D009317:National Library of Medicine (U.S.); D011506:Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D014481:United States
D011506:Proteins; D012333:RNA, Messenger