GENETICS.
As an addendum for the article “Discovery of five conserved β-defensin gene clusters using a computational search strategy,” by Brian C. Schutte, Joseph P. Mitros, Jennifer A. Bartlett, Jesse D. Walters, Hong Peng Jia, Michael J. Welsh, Thomas L. Casavant, and Paul B. McCray, Jr., which appeared in number 4, February 19, 2002, of Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (99, 2129–2133), the authors note the following. The publication of this paper prompted those working in the field of antimicrobial peptides to evaluate the nomenclature for current and future members of growing defensin family of genes. Consultation between the scientific community, the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (www.gene.ucl.ac.uk/nomenclature/), and the Mouse Genomic Nomenclature Committee (www.informatics.jax.org/mgihome/nomen/) led to a recent decision regarding β-defensin gene nomenclature. The consensus for the names of β-defensin genes reached by the human and mouse gene nomenclature groups is available from the web sites of the two nomenclature groups www.gene.ucl.ac.uk/cgi-bin/nomenclature/searchgenes.pl and www.informatics.jax.org/searches/marker_form.shtml. A table of the old and new names is published as supporting information on the PNAS web site (www.pnas.org).
In brief, the mouse gene names will use the “Defb” stem root, whereas the human genes will use the “DEFB” stem root. A unique number was assigned to every mouse and human gene. Mouse genes are numbered beginning with the Arabic numeral 1, whereas the human genes are numbered beginning with the numeral 101. In cases where orthologous genes are certain, or confirmed in a future workshop, the lower gene number will be used. For example, there is general agreement that the mouse β-defensin-1 (Defb1) and human β-defensin-1 (DEFB101) are orthologs. Hence, they are named Defb1 and DEFB1, respectively. The letters P for human and ps for mouse (for pseudogenes) and L (for genes whose function as a defensin has not been demonstrated) are added after the Arabic numeral when appropriate. Names used in previous publications or online databases are also indicated at the respective human and mouse nomenclature web sites.
New gene discoveries or new evidence of gene orthology can be submitted to HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee and the Mouse Genomic Nomenclature Committee at the following addresses: (i) Ruth Lovering, Ph.D., Tel.: 44-20-7679-5027, Fax: 44-20-7387-3496, E-mail: nome@galton.ucl.ac.uk, URL: www.gene.ucl.ac.uk/nomenclature/ and (ii) Lois J. Maltais, Tel.: 207-288-6429, Fax: 207-288-6132, E-mail: nomen@informatics.jax.org, URL: www.informatics.jax.org/mgihome/nomen/.