Salamanders (urodele amphibians) are important model organisms in several areas of human health and disease research, including limb regeneration, neural transmission, vision, renal function, embryo genesis, heart development, and olfaction. The utility of salamanders would be greatly extended if fundamental genome resources were developed and made available to researchers. The objective of the proposed project is to characterize and determine the genomic position of expressed sequences(ESTs)from regenerating limb and retina, two focal salamander tissues in biomedical research. Also, to make a more general contribution to salamander researchers, genes that correspond to previously published salamander sequences in Genbank will be mapped. The identification of ESTs and development of a genome map will be an important resource over the short term because it will allow: (1) construction of an EST database for salamander traits that are of special interest; (2) gene homologies to be determined between salamander and human; (3) candidate gene studies of existing salamander mutants; (4) quantitative trait locus analyses of complex phenotypes; and (5) reconstruction of vertebrate genome evolution. With respect to longer term goals, the proposed project will spur development of additional resources that will facilitate identification of salamander genes of biomedical significance.
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