Human disease genes and their cloned mouse orthologs: exploration of the FANTOM2 cDNA sequence data set.

The FANTOM2 cDNA sequence data set is an excellent model to demonstrate the power of large-scale cDNA sequencing, with the goal of providing a full-length transcript sequence for each mouse gene. This data set enhances the use of the mouse as a model for human disease. Here we identify mouse cDNA sequences in the FANTOM2 data set for a set of 67 human disease genes that as of May 2002 had no corresponding mouse cDNA annotated in the Mouse Genome Informatics (MGI) database. These 67 human disease genes include genes related to neurological and eye disorders and cancer. We also present a list of the human disease genes and their cloned mouse orthologs found in two public databases, LocusLink and MGI. Allelic variant and gene functional information available in MGI provides additional information relative to these mouse models, whereas computed sequence-based connections at NCBI support facile navigation through multiple genomes.