? Tetrahymena thermophila is an excellent microbial organism for fundamental eukaryotic experimental cell and molecular biology and for comparative and functional genomics. Tetrahymena belongs to an independent eukaryotic clade, the AIveolata, yet its genome has conserved a remarkably degree of functional similarity to the human genome. Robust and novel molecular genetic tools have placed Tetrahymena at the forefront of experimental, in vivo functional genomics research. Tetrahymena is thus also an excellent unicellular genetic animal model organism for the investigation of human biology that has been evolutionarily lost by yeast. The primary goal of this project, a collaborative effort of TIGR, the Tetrahymena research community and the Saccharomyces Genome Database, is the whole-genome shotgun-sequencing, assembly and annotation of the expressed (macronuclear) T. thermophila genome. The project has three aims: 1) To whole-genome shotgun sequence and assemble the macronuclear genome to a depth of 8-fold sequence coverage. This coverage should be sufficient to discover nearly all the genes, and provide sequence of high enough quality to be able to directly exploit the advanced tools for post genomic analysis available in Tetrahymena. 2) To annotate and analyze the genome sequence, including the identification of putative genes, prediction of gene function, and other features standard for genomic analysis. 3) To facilitate unrestricted, user-friendly access to the T. thermophila genome sequence by releasing the sequence data immediately to external sequence databases and by the creation of three interlinked database resources: a TIGR website, a manually curated Tetrahymena Genome Database and a Tetrahymena-specific section in the NCBI """"""""Genomic Biology"""""""" website. ? ?
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