Sequencing of the Rat Genome and Databases
The rat is an important system for modeling human disease. Four years ago, the rich 150-year history of rat research was transformed by the sequencing and annotation of the rat genome, ushering in an era of exceptional opportunity for identifying genes and pathways underlying disease phenotypes. With the genome sequence in place, there is the prospect of not only linking the extensive literature of mechanistic and pharmacological studies in the rat to its genome, but by using comparative genomics to other organisms as well. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in human populations have recently provided a direct approach for finding robust genetic associations in common diseases, but identifying the precise genes and their mechanisms of action remains challenging. The explosion of genomic tools and sequence over the last decade has created a wealth of data. Along with the data has arisen a need to manage it and to make it usable to scientists with a wide-range of research interests. This chapter is designed to overview the existing sequence and its utility, as well as provide a glimpse of some of the databases and bioinformatic tools available to the investigator.
- Methylated DNA Immunoprecipitation (MeDIP) from Low Amounts of Cells
- Particle-Mediated Administration of Plasmid DNA on Corneas of BALB/c Mice
- Use of Inverse PCR to Clone cDNA Ends
- Restriction Endonuclease Accessibility as a Determinant of Altered Chromatin Structure
- Electrophysiological Analysis of Neuronal and Muscle Function in C. elegans
- Alu-PCR Fingerprinting of YACs
- Radiolabeling for Two-Dimensional Gel Analysis
- Analysis of Subcellular Metabolite Distributions Within Arabidopsis thaliana Leaf Tissue: A Primer for Subcellular Metabolomics
- Transgenesis in Drosophila melanogaster
- High-Throughput Insertion Tracking by Deep Sequencing for the Analysis of Bacterial Pathogens