S5.B. Specific Recommendations.
S5.B.i. Support the Development of a Xenopus Expressed Sequence Tag (EST) Library. Since the principal research activities using the frog have been biochemical purification and gene discovery, there is a need to identify readily isolated proteins or clones. In many cases the strong conservation of core components between mammals and frogs (and often even yeast) has enabled this identification. However, the identification of such similarity often requires extensive sequencing to define regions of homology. The presence of families of regulatory molecules leaves an ambiguity in these assignments. To proceed from protein sequence to gene is often a laborious and sometimes an unsuccessful practice. Although gene and protein identification will be simplified for human tissue when the human genomic sequence is completed, it will be a long time before this benefit is extended to other vertebrate organisms. The EST databases have been relatively inexpensive and immensely useful to biochemists and to those identifying genes by functional or other assays. The establishment of a Xenopus EST database would facilitate the interface between discoveries made during studies of amphibians and discoveries made during studies of mammals.
S5.B.ii. Improve facilities for frog husbandry. The cost of keeping non-mammalian vertebrates, such as frogs and fish, is far less than that of keeping mice, and this fact alone will allow extensive screening, mutagenesis and transgenesis studies using these organisms beyond what is practical with mammals. However, despite the lower costs of keeping frogs, there are difficulties faced by frog investigators in animal quality, availability and health that have not been addressed. Adequate animal facilities are generally not available and inbred lines carrying transgenes have not been disseminated and propagated. We propose that some money be set aside to develop frog facilities capable of meeting the need for biochemical quantities of eggs and for the maintenance of inbred and genetically selected animals.
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