XINE v1 issue 2
Dear colleagues,
Welcome to 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 (not much coming in so far). 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.
Distribution of Xenopus ESTs
Xenopus ESTs can be ordered from all of the major distributors of I.M.A.G.E. clones. See http://image.llnl.gov/image/html/idistributors.shtml for a current list of distributors. The availability of particular clones from I.M.A.G.E. can be tracked on their web site http://image.llnl.gov/image/html/phage.shtml.
Selection of organisms for genome sequencing
As you may know, the NIH is now working to identify the next group of organisms for genome sequencing. At a recent planning meeting, two sets of criteria were enumerated. These include general considerations such as
Ease of obtaining sequence
Existing technical knowledge
Suitability for experiments
Active and eager research community
and scientific merit, e.g.,
Ability to study evolution of traits
Ability to serve as a model system
I think that Xenopus can make strong arguments for many of these. Apparently the decision will be based on community-generated 'white papers' and will be heavily influenced by the community's enthusiasm. This is a good time for the community to begin discussing these issues, working on a white paper and getting representatives included in the future NIH meetings on sequencing.
To express their support for Xenopus, people should contact the members of the Trans-NIH Xenopus Working Group. Additionally, people with NIH grants should contact their NIH Program Officials and emphasize how their research will be benefitted by having more Xenopus genomic resources.
A link to the original story is below.
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GENOMICS: Animals Line Up to Be Sequenced (p. 409)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------Josh Gewolb
CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND--Work on the human genome sequence will be winding up in 2003, and it's high time to add other creatures to the pipeline to utilize the 2000-base-per-second worldwide sequencing capacity, sequencers agree. With 1.7 million known species to choose from, however--and almost as many specialists lobbying for their favorites--selecting the next few will not be easy. The stakes are enormous, researchers agreed at a workshop here last week designed to set criteria for choosing the next candidates for the sequencing machines.
Xenopus ESTs
As of today, there are 103,175 Xenopus ESTs available in the database. Check http://genome.wustl.edu/est/xenopus_esthmpg.html for the most recent information. This puts Xenopus in the exclusive 'Over 100K Club', which has only 12 other members! I think that's something to celebrate! To see how Xenopus compares with other organisms, check http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/dbEST/dbEST_summary.html.
Xenbase is alive
www.xenbase.org has been down for some time as Peter Vize moves his lab to the University of Calgary. You can access Xenbase temporarily at the following URL http://cbrmed.ucalgary.ca/pvize/html/Xenbase.html
update Xenbase is fully functional again
Xine-1.1
It has come to my attention that many people on the mailing list did not receive the first edition of Xine. You can find it at http://blumberg-serv.bio.uci.edu/Xine/index.htm or http://cbrmed.ucalgary.ca/pvize/html/xine/xine.html
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.
Until next time.
Bruce