Cardiovascular genomics: Estimating the total number of genes expressed inthe human cardiovascular system

The number of genes encoded by the human genome has long sought to be deter mined. With the recent publications of the complete sequence of the human g enome, the number of genes encoded by the human genome has now been estimat ed to be similar to 32 000-38 000. Now the next step will be to determine w hich of these genes arc expressed in a given cell. tissue or organ. Using t hree unique approaches taking advantage of our current cardiovascular EST d atabase and the complete nucleotide sequence of human chromosomes 21 and 22 as welt as cDNA microarray hybridization, we estimate that between 20 930- 27 160 genes are expressed in the cardiovascular system. (C) 2001 Academic Press.