Introducing the Vertebrate Gene Nomenclature Committee (VGNC)

Standardised gene nomenclature provides an essential resource for all researchers. However an ever-increasing number of vertebrate genomes are being sequenced and the data released into the public domain without any systematic annotation or gene naming. There are currently only six vertebrate model organisms with an official gene nomenclature group (mouse, rat, chicken, Anolis, Xenopus and zebrafish), all of which base their gene names on those approved by the HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC) for human genes. This presentation introduces the Vertebrate Gene Nomenclature Committee (VGNC) – a parallel branch of the HGNC tasked with approving gene names and symbols across vertebrates.

Our naming strategy for each vertebrate species starts by identifying a high confidence set of genes with 1:1 human orthologs using our HCOP tool, which aggregates orthology predictions from many sources. These 1:1 orthologs will be named in a semi-automated manner, with the human gene nomenclature being transferred to the orthologous gene. Genes with non-consensus orthologs, members of complex gene families, pseudogenes and RNA genes will require additional manual curation.

Our prototype species for naming is chimpanzee and we have begun naming the 12,952 protein-coding chimp genes with a 1:1 human ortholog. During this process we are taking the opportunity to improve the consistency of our names and taking care to minimise transfer of species-specific information (e.g. molecular weights). This naming process will soon be expanded to other species, including dog and cow.

Further information and requests for individual vertebrate gene names and symbols can be made via: http://www.genenames.org.