Assignment of 118 novel cDNAs of cynomolgus monkey brain to human chromosomes

In order to isolate genes that may not be represented in current human brai n cDNA libraries, we have sequenced about 20,000 sequence tags of cDNA clon es derived from cerebellum and parietal lobe of cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis). We determined the entire cDNA sequence of approximately 700 clones whose 5'-terminal sequences showed no homology to annotated putative genes or expressed sequence tags in current databases of genetic informati on. From this, 118 clones with sequences encoding novel open reading frames of more than 100 amino acid residues were selected for further analysis. T o localize the genes corresponding to these 118 newly identified cDNA clone s on human chromosomes, we performed a homology search using the human geno me sequence and fluorescent in situ hybridization. In total, 108 of 118 clo nes were successfully assigned to specific regions of human chromosomes. Th is result demonstrates that genes expressed in cynomolgus monkey are highly conserved throughout primate evolution, and that virtually all had human h omologs. Furthermore, we will be able to discover novel human genes in the human genome using monkey homologs as probes. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V . All rights reserved.