Using GO to enhance the utility of Drosophila data to medical research

使用 GO 增强果蝇数据在医学研究中的效用

• 批准号: G1000968/1
• 负责人: Nicholas Brown
• 金额: $ 82.46万
• 依托单位: University of Cambridge
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2011 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=G1000968%2F1
• 关键词: Using; GO; enhance; utility; Drosophila

Ten years ago the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster became one of the first complex animals to have its genome sequenced. This may seem an odd choice - who cares about flies and why didn?t we start with the human genome? In fact, the fruit fly has been a favourite species for genetic research for a century. Not only is it easy to work with and free from many of the ethical concerns associated with using animals in medical research but there are enough similarities between flies and man to make it directly relevant to medical research. Around 75% of the genes known to be associated with human diseases are also found in the fly and in many cases there is evidence that they work in similar ways in both species. Figuring out how something works in a fly can give scientists clues as to how to fix things when the same genes go wrong in human disease. The fly is proving to be a good model for various human diseases such as brain disorders. As a result of its popularity, scientists publish thousands of research papers on fly genes every year. For scientists working on a specific human disease, it can be a daunting task to find all of published information that may be relevant to their work and make sense of experiments preformed in different species. The aim of this project is to summarise fly research data in a way that makes it easier for all biological researchers to find and make use of it. The work will involve database curators reading peer reviewed research papers and summarising any data about gene function. To do this we will make use of a special dictionary of interconnected scientific terms, the Gene Ontology, that has been developed to succinctly describe what the products of genes do and where in a cell they carry out these functions. The connections between terms makes it easy to search and display biological processes that are related in different species. We will also label genes in the fly database to indicate that they are related to human genes and/or human diseases - this will make it easier for scientists to find the information they need to inform future research. The work will be carried out by scientists at the University of Cambridge in collaboration with the Drosophila database FlyBase and the Gene Ontology Consortium.

十年前，果蝇（Drosophila melanogaster）成为第一批完成基因组测序的复杂动物之一。这似乎是一个奇怪的选择-谁关心苍蝇，为什么不呢？我们不应该从人类基因组开始吗？事实上，果蝇是遗传学研究的热门物种已经有世纪了。它不仅易于使用，而且不受与在医学研究中使用动物相关的许多伦理问题的影响，而且苍蝇和人类之间有足够的相似之处，使其与医学研究直接相关。大约75%的已知与人类疾病相关的基因也在苍蝇中发现，在许多情况下，有证据表明它们在两个物种中以类似的方式工作。弄清楚某些东西是如何在苍蝇中起作用的，可以给科学家们提供线索，当人类疾病中相同的基因出错时，如何修复这些东西。苍蝇被证明是一个很好的模型，为各种人类疾病，如大脑疾病。由于其受欢迎程度，科学家每年发表数千篇关于苍蝇基因的研究论文。对于研究特定人类疾病的科学家来说，找到所有可能与他们的工作相关的已发表信息并理解在不同物种中进行的实验可能是一项艰巨的任务。该项目的目的是总结苍蝇研究数据，使所有生物研究人员更容易找到和利用它。这项工作将涉及数据库管理员阅读同行评议的研究论文，并总结有关基因功能的任何数据。为了做到这一点，我们将使用一个特殊的字典相互关联的科学术语，基因本体论，已经开发出简洁地描述基因的产品做什么，以及在细胞中他们执行这些功能。术语之间的联系使得搜索和显示不同物种中相关的生物过程变得容易。我们还将标记果蝇数据库中的基因，以表明它们与人类基因和/或人类疾病有关-这将使科学家更容易找到他们需要的信息，为未来的研究提供信息。这项工作将由剑桥大学的科学家与果蝇数据库FlyBase和基因本体论联盟合作进行。