Book reviews

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45572/1/11199_2004_Article_BF00287823.pd

Book reviews

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45645/1/11199_2004_Article_BF00287975.pd

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

The Lion's Roar, 1948, North Texas State Teachers College Demonstration School, Denton, Texas

Yearbook for North Texas Laboratory School in Denton, Texas includes photos of and information about the school, student body, teachers, and organizations

The Role of Maternal VegT in Establishing the Primary Germ Layers in Xenopus Embryos

VegT is a T-box transcription factor whose mRNA is synthesized during oogenesis and localized in the vegetal hemisphere of the egg and early embryo. We show that maternally expressed VegT controls the pattern of primary germ layer specification in Xenopus embryos. Reduction of the maternal store completely alters the fates of different regions of the blastula so that animal cell fate is changed from epidermis and nervous system to epidermis only, equatorial cell fate is changed from mesoderm to ectoderm, and vegetal cell fate is changed from endoderm to mesoderm and ectoderm. Vegetal cells lose their capacity both to form endoderm and to release mesoderm-inducing signals. These results show that a single maternally expressed gene controls the patterning of the Xenopus blastula