Manual annotation and analysis of the defensin gene cluster in the C57BL/6J mouse reference genome.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Host defense peptides are a critical component of the innate immune system. Human alpha- and beta-defensin genes are subject to copy number variation (CNV) and historically the organization of mouse alpha-defensin genes has been poorly defined. Here we present the first full manual genomic annotation of the mouse defensin region on Chromosome 8 of the reference strain C57BL/6J, and the analysis of the orthologous regions of the human and rat genomes. Problems were identified with the reference assemblies of all three genomes. Defensins have been studied for over two decades and their naming has become a critical issue due to incorrect identification of defensin genes derived from different mouse strains and the duplicated nature of this region.

Results

The defensi

SUBMITTER: Amid C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2807441 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature