ZFIN: The Zebrafish Model Organism Database

描述（由申请人提供）：发现人类基因组中数万个基因的功能是了解人类生物学和疾病的必要步骤。遗传模式生物，包括斑马鱼，在这一发现过程中发挥了关键作用，因为遗传分析可以将基因序列和功能联系起来。模型生物数据库，如ZFIN，提供了建立这种联系所需的工具。斑马鱼已经成为一种首要的模式生物，因为强大的技术可以有效地产生和恢复斑马鱼的突变，这些突变影响着调节发育模式、器官发生、生理和行为的基因。近年来的研究进展使得通过转基因斑马鱼或用morpholino反义寡核苷酸敲低基因功能来研究基因功能变得容易。许多这些基因的功能在脊椎动物群体中是保守的。因此，对斑马鱼突变的分析提供了对包括人类在内的其他脊椎动物基因功能的见解。ZFIN的长期目标是：a)成为斑马鱼实验室使用的社区数据库资源；b)开发和支持整合斑马鱼的遗传、基因组、发育和生理信息；c)维护斑马鱼研究信息的权威参考数据集；d)将这些信息广泛地与其他模式生物和人类数据库中的相应数据联系起来；e)促进将斑马鱼作为人类生物学模型的使用。f)帮助满足生物医学研究界的广泛需求。该项目将继续并扩大对斑马鱼研究数据的管理，扩大对斑马鱼人类疾病模型的支持，扩大和整合与其他数据库的链接，并加强对ZFIN数据的搜索、探索和挖掘的支持。这项工作将为研究人员将基因序列和功能联系起来提供有力的手段，从而促进人类基因功能和疾病的研究以及基因组组织和进化的跨物种分析。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Discovering the functions of the tens of thousands of genes in the human genome is a required step for understanding human biology and disease. Genetic model organisms, including Zebrafish, play a critical role in this discovery process, because genetic analysis can connect gene sequence and function. Model organism databases, like ZFIN, provide tools required to make this connection. Zebrafish has emerged as a premiere model organism because powerful techniques allow efficient generation and recovery of zebrafish mutations affecting genes that regulate developmental patterning, organogenesis, physiology, and behavior. Recent advances make it easy to study gene function by generating transgenic zebrafish or by knocking down gene function with morpholino antisense oligonucleotides. The functions of many of these genes are conserved among vertebrate groups. Thus, analysis of zebrafish mutations provides insights into gene functions in other vertebrates, including humans. The long term goals for ZFIN are a) to be the community database resource for the laboratory use of zebrafish, b) to develop and support integrated zebrafish genetic, genomic, developmental, and physiological information, c) to maintain the definitive reference data sets of zebrafish research information, d) to link this information extensively to corresponding data in other model organism and human databases, e) to facilitate the use of zebrafish as a model for human biology, and f) to help serve the broad needs of the biomedical research community. This project will continue and expand curation of zebrafish research data, develop expanded support for zebrafish models of human disease, expand and integrate links to other databases, and develop enhanced support for searching, exploring, and mining ZFIN data. This work will provide a powerful means for researchers to associate gene sequence and function, thus facilitating studies of human gene function and disease as well as cross-species analyses of genome organization and evolution.