Xine v1 issue 1
Dear Colleagues,
This is the inaugural issue of Xine - a Xenopus newsletter intended to disseminate information to the field at large. Currently, the newsletter is distributed whenever there is news to report. A monthly or bi-weekly format would be preferable but this depends on contributions of information from Xenopus investigators. If you have anything that you would like the community to be aware of, please e-mail the editor, Bruce Blumberg (blumberg@uci.edu) who will include it in the next newsletter.
Major Progress on Xenopus Genetic Resources
Exciting progress has been made in providing new genomic resouces for Xenopus researchers. As detailed in the hyperlinks below, nearly 100,000 ESTs have now appeared with more on the way.
1) Xenopus ESTs approach 100,000!
Xenopus is number 11 on the list of organisms ranked by number of ESTs
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/dbEST/dbEST_summary.html
2) Unigene set now available!
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/UniGene/Xl.Home.html
Each of us owes Steve Klein our gratitude for enabling and expediting the development of these resources. Thanks Steve!
Distribution of Xenopus ESTs
One issue that has cropped up is the rather spotty distribution of the ESTs by Research Genetics. Until recently it was not possible to ascertain whether or not Research Genetics had an individual EST which was very frustrating for all concerned. Troy Moore at Research Genetics has assured me that all plates produced by the I.M.A.G.E. consortium are in their hands and will be ready for distribution shortly. The problem was a delay in distribution from LLNL but this has now been resolved. Please contact Troy directly (tmoore@resgen.com) if problems persist. Alternatively, ATCC and Incyte Genomics should have these clones, although Xenopus is not listed on their web site. Simply order using the IMAGE ID number.
Xenbase
Xenbase (http://www.xenbase.org) coordinated by Peter Vize is a central repository for all sorts of Xenopus-related information. Click http://www.xenbase.org/WhatsNew.html to see what's new.
Xenopus tropicalis
Rob Grainger maintains a web site http://www.virginia.edu/~develbio/trop/ with a lot of practical information concerning Xenopus tropicalis. If you are planning to switch to trops or include them in your ongoing research this is a site not to miss. If you are interested in buying some trops, Pacific Biologicals http://www.pacificbio.com is having a sale on Xenopus tropicalis at the moment.
Deadline for Xenopus RFA approaching
RFA on DEVELOPING THE POTENTIAL OF XENOPUS TROPICALIS AS A GENETIC MODEL (HD-00-008) http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-HD-01-008.html
The deadline for proposal submission is July 11, 2001.
Subscription information
I have constructed the Xine mailing list from serveral sources. If you are not on the list and wish to be, want to update your e-mail address or would rather not receive it at all, please contact Bruce Blumberg blumberg@uci.edu
Until next time.
Bruce