Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Structure of 3-Acetyl-5-fluorouracil (5-FU): Implication for Its Rearrangements During Hydrolysis and upon Heating

Single-crystal X-ray diffraction data show that the 3-acetyl group in l,3-diacetyl-5-FU (FU = fluorouracil) is perpendicular to the plane of the 5-FU ring, while the 1-acetyl group is coplanar with the ring. Analyses of H NMR and IR spectra provide evidence that the 1-and 3-acyl groups are in different electronic environments, which is consistent with the X-ray diffraction structure. 3-Acetyl-5-FU is thermally unstable, giving mainly l-acetyl-5-FU (80%) and 5-FU (20%) upon heating. The hydrolysis of 3-acyl derivatives of 5-FU showed a biexponential relationship between In concentration and time which had not been previously observed. The behavior of 3-acetyl-5-FU during hydrolysis can be explained by postulating its initial rapid equilibrium with an intermediate, 2-acetyl-5-FU, which subsequently hydrolyzes to 5-FU or rearranges to l-acetyl-5-FU, which hydrolyzes to 5-FU. The 2-acetyl intermediate was trapped by its reaction with formaldehyde. The formaldehyde adducts of the symmetrical 2-acetyl intermediate rearranged to yield equal amounts of 1- and 3-acetyloxymethyl-5-FU

Ethyl 3-(9-chloro-10-oxo-9,10-dihydroanthracen-9-yl)-5-methylisoxazole-4-carboxylate

The asymmetric unit of the title compound, C21H16ClNO4, contains two independent molecules (A and B), each adopting a conformation wherein the isoxazole ring is roughly orthogonal to the anthrone ring. The dihedral angle between the mean plane of the isoxazole (all atoms) and the mean plane of the anthrone (all atoms) is 88.48 (3)° in one molecule and 89.92 (4)° in the other. The ester is almost coplanar with the isoxazole ring, with mean-plane dihedral angles of 2.48 (15) and 8.62 (5)°. In both molecules, the distance between the ester carbonyl O atom and the anthrone ketone C atom is about 3.3 Å. The anthrone ring is virtually planar (r.m.s. deviations of 0.070 and 0.065 Å) and adopts a shallow boat conformation in each molecule, as evidenced by the sum of the six intra-B-ring torsion angles [41.43 (15) and 34.38 (15)° for molecules A and B, respectively]. The closest separation between the benzene moieties of anthrones A and B is 5.1162 (7) Å, with an angle of 57.98 (5)°, consistent with an edge-to-face π-stacking interaction. In the crystal, weak C—H...O and C—H...N interactions link the molecules, forming a three-dimensional network