PARENT SESSION
STATE-OF-THE-ART LECTURES
Tuesday, July 31, 2001, 4:15 PM-6:15 PM
Westin-Ballroom
Chair: Barbara Sanborn, President, SSR
Speakers: Robert E Braun, Teresa K Woodruff

VIRTUAL REPRODUCTIVE GENETICS: APPLYING FUNCTIONAL GENOMICS AND BIOINFORMATICS TO RESEARCH ON MALE REPRODUCTION.

Braun, Robert¹, Cassen, Victor¹, ¹

ABSTRACT- Overwhelmed with too much information? Curious to know what mutants cause primordial germ cell depletion or meiotic arrest? Frustrated by the time it takes to search PubMed for the expression pattern of a articular gene? Wondering if you should include a genomics or proteomics aim in your grant renewal? We are in the process of building an online database for Male Reproductive Genetics (MRG) to help you answer some of these questions. You can access the MRG at http://mouse.genetics.washington.edu/. The MRG currently includes searchable databases for male reproductive phenotypes, patterns of gene expression, protein function, and protein localization. The MRG also allows you to submit information on any of these topics. The information in the site can help you identify genes with similar expression patterns to your favorite gene, other mutants with similar phenotypes, and orthologous genes from other organisms. Information contained in the databases is hyperlinked to other databases on the web. The MRG is meant to complement, not replace, other databases like GXD which as been established by the Jackson Laboratory. A long-term goal of the MRG is to serve as hub for sharing genomic and proteomic data among the research community. For this resource to succeed we need the help of the entire reproductive community. We encourage you to access the site, submit data, and offer feedback. I will take you through a tour of the MRG and illustrate how it can be applied to your research efforts. Funding for the MRG has been provided by NICHD through the Specialized Cooperative Centers program In Reproduction Research (SCCPRR).

KEY WORDS: MRG