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

Shreveport's KWKH: A city and its radio station in the evolution of country music and rock -and -roll.

How does a city's history---its culture, commerce, race relations---affect its music? Shreveport, Louisiana, is known as the home of KWKH's Louisiana Hayride, a radio barn dance broadcast from 1948 until 1960. But its story begins earlier. Founded in 1836, the river port became a locus for commerce and culture, a place where the Deep South met the Frontier West. African-Americans and whites, living in close proximity, continually exchanged music and culture across socio-political borders; border-crossing between whites and blacks is the critical backdrop for this exploration of popular music. In 1925, W. K. Henderson built a small radio station, KWKH, where he ranted populist sermons interspersed with studio fiddles and fox-trot records. By the post-World War II era, KWKH had become a 50,000-watt powerhouse. With its Louisiana Hayride, KWKH introduced many of country music's most distinctive voices, from Hank Williams to Elvis Presley. At the same time, the station influenced a generation of white musicians who tuned in to both country and rhythm-and-blues. Along with Presley, many of these youths became influential players of a style described as rockabilly: music with one foot in rhythm-and-blues, the other in country. Shreveporters D. J. Fontana, James Burton, Joe Osborn, and Jerry Kennedy were part of this generation and enjoyed careers as performers and studio musicians, leaving their stamp on U.S. popular music. This study uses letters, newspapers, memoirs, and other sources in an interdisciplinary examination of Shreveport history and its musical culture over the past two centuries. This study focuses on the area of Louisiana, Texas, and Arkansas that marks a border between the South and the West. The implications are broad, considering the international fame of Huddie Ledbetter, the development of the phonograph and radio, the post-WWII prominence of the country music radio barn dance, and the birth of rockabilly. Oral history interviews enrich a discussion of Shreveport musical life from the 1930s through the 1960s. Finally, the study illuminates the mixture of circumstance and talent that made the late 1940s to 1950s a watershed era in the musical history of this deep South city.Ph.D.American historyAmerican studiesCommunication and the ArtsMass communicationMusicSocial SciencesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/132401/2/9963829.pd

The DNA sequence and analysis of human chromosome 13

Chromosome 13 is the largest acrocentric human chromosome. It carries genes involved in cancer including the breast cancer type 2 (BRCA2) and retinoblastoma (RB1) genes, is frequently rearranged in B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, and contains the DAOA locus associated with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. We describe completion and analysis of 95.5 megabases (Mb) of sequence from chromosome 13, which contains 633 genes and 296 pseudogenes. We estimate that more than 95.4% of the protein-coding genes of this chromosome have been identified, on the basis of comparison with other vertebrate genome sequences. Additionally, 105 putative non-coding RNA genes were found. Chromosome 13 has one of the lowest gene densities (6.5 genes per Mb) among human chromosomes, and contains a central region of 38 Mb where the gene density drops to only 3.1 genes per Mb

DNA sequence and analysis of human chromosome 9.

Chromosome 9 is highly structurally polymorphic. It contains the largest autosomal block of heterochromatin, which is heteromorphic in 6–8% of humans, whereas pericentric inversions occur in more than 1% of the population. The finished euchromatic sequence of chromosome 9 comprises 109,044,351 base pairs and represents >99.6% of the region. Analysis of the sequence reveals many intra- and interchromosomal duplications, including segmental duplications adjacent to both the centromere and the large heterochromatic block. We have annotated 1,149 genes, including genes implicated in male-to-female sex reversal, cancer and neurodegenerative disease, and 426 pseudogenes. The chromosome contains the largest interferon gene cluster in the human genome. There is also a region of exceptionally high gene and G + C content including genes paralogous to those in the major histocompatibility complex. We have also detected recently duplicated genes that exhibit different rates of sequence divergence, presumably reflecting natural selection