Abstract
Why is agreeing on one particular name for each gene important? As one genome after another becomes sequenced, it is imperative to consider the complexity of genes, genetic architecture, gene expression, gene-gene and gene-product interactions and evolutionary relatedness across species. To agree on a particular gene name not only makes one's own research easier, but will also be helpful to the present generation, as well as future generations, of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows who are about to enter genomics research.
Highlights
As mainframe computers were developed in the 1940s and personal computers designed some years later, a short-sighted decision was made, early on, to designate the date in six numbers
With the amount of bioinformatics information being thrown at us at alarmingly increasing rates, the least we can do for the present generation, as well as future generations of scientists, is to agree on a systematic gene nomenclature system — for the human genome, but ideally for all eukaryotic and prokaryotic genomes
Help to provide one of the keys to unlocking the secrets of the human genomic sequence by ensuring that there are unique gene symbols identified in all the human genome browsers and other databases
Summary
As mainframe computers were developed in the 1940s and personal computers designed some years later, a short-sighted decision was made, early on, to designate the date in six numbers (eg 25-07-58). It was not until some time later that computer scientists realised that, when the date changed from 31-12-99 to 01-01-00 at the turn of the century, almost all computers worldwide would ‘think’ the year was 1900 instead of 2000. With the amount of bioinformatics information being thrown at us at alarmingly increasing rates, the least we can do for the present generation, as well as future generations of scientists, is to agree on a systematic gene nomenclature system — for the human genome, but ideally for all eukaryotic and prokaryotic genomes
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