This track displays
Stable Transfection
data for the NHGRI ENCODE target regions. This is a form of
transfection experiment designed to produce permanent lines of
cultured cells with a new gene inserted into their genome. Nucleic
acids are introduced into mammalian cells in manner that allows the
test fragment to either integrate into the chromosomal DNA or be
maintained as an episomal segment. Usually this is done by linking the
desired gene with a "selectable" gene, i.e. a gene which confers
resistance to a toxin (like G418, aka Geneticin). Upon putting the
toxin into the culture medium, only those cells which incorporate the
resistance gene will survive, and essentially all of those will also
have incorporated the "test" sequence.
The long-term goal of the NHGRI ENCODE Project (ENCyclopedia of DNA Elements) is to identify all functional elements in the human genome sequence to facilitate a better understanding of human biology and disease.
During the pilot phase, 44 regions comprising 30 Mb -- approximately 1% of the human genome -- have been selected for intensive study to identify, locate and analyze functional elements within the regions. These targets are being studied by a diverse public research consortium to test and evaluate the efficacy of various methods, technologies, and strategies for locating genomic features. The outcome of this initial phase will form the basis for a larger-scale effort to analyze the entire human genome.
The ENCODE Project: Target Selection Process provides a description of how the initial target regions were selected.
To open a UCSC Genome Browser with a menu for selecting ENCODE regions, use ENCODE Regions in the UCSC Browser .