DOE Human Genome Program Contractor-Grantee Workshop VIII
February 27-March 2, 2000  Santa Fe, NM

96. Analysis of Uncharacterized Human cDNAs which Encode Large Proteins in Brain

M. Oishi, T. Nagase, R. Kikuno, M. Hirosawa, and O. Ohara

Department of Human Gene Research, Kazusa DNA Research Institute, Kisarazu, Chiba, Japan

The aim of Kazusa cDNA project, which was initiated five years ago, is to accumulate sequence and other information of unidentified full-length human cDNA clones which encode large proteins in brain. Our ultimate goal is to characterize brain functions on molecular basis and to identify genes responsible for serious neurodisorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorders. From human brain cDNA libraries, which are quite versatile in their contents compared to those of other tissues, we have been focussing on large cDNA clones (with more than 4 kb in size), mainly because (1) genes known to be responsible for diseases tend to be large in size and (2) large cDNAs, for some reasons, have been left out in world-wide efforts of cDNA characterization. After initial screening for the clones to make large proteins in vitro, selected clones are subjected to entire sequencing, expression pattern analysis among major tissues and brain subtissues and determination of their chromosomal location. To date, characterization of more than 1200 cDNA clones has been completed and the information is accessible through a data base for Human Unidentified Genes Encoding (the HUGE protein data base).