New Genome Builds and Map Viewer Displays

Rhesus macaque now in Map Viewer

The genome of the rhesus macaque, Macaca mulatta, a widely used primate model organism, is now, available in the Map Viewer via a link on the Map Viewer home page at:

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mapview

The macaque genome build 1.1 is NCBI's assembly and annotation of the Macaque Genome Sequencing Consortium version 1.0 whole genome shotgun (WGS) assembly. The assembly provides 5.1X coverage of the genome with a total sequence length of 2.87 gigabases and is anchored to the 20 pairs of macaque autosomes, the X, and the Y chromosomes. The mitochondrial genome given in NCBI RefSeq NC_005943, derived from GenBank record AY612638, is also displayed in the Map Viewer. Sequence maps available within Map Viewer include the NCBI contigs, the WGS sequences and the location of genes, STSs, ESTs, UniGene clusters and Gnomon predicted gene models. Maps of aligned human transcripts are available to aid in locating and evaluting macaque gene annotatons. Currently, a total of 24,974 genes and their transcripts are placed on the macaque sequence. Accompanying the sequence maps is a radiation hybrid map containing 800 markers covering all macaque chromosomes. As with all genomes with assembled sequences in the Map Viewer, a Genome BLAST page is available that allows searches against the genome and specialized sets of macaque sequences including GenBank and RefSeq mRNA and protein sequences, expressed sequence tags, high throughput genomic sequence, whole genome shotgun and trace archive sequences. Results of searches agains the assembled genome can be displayed in the macaque map viewer to provide essential genomic contextual information. Genomic BLAST may be reached via links on the Map Viewer home page.