A new comprehensive database for lineage-based co-regulated genes (LCGbase) was provided by Professor YU and his team at Beijing Institute of Genomics (BIG), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), for studying gene clustering and ordering with multiple genes based on the stringently-defined conserved paired gene clusters.

To study animal genomes of different lineages and answer questions such as what is the minimal number of genes in a cluster and how they move around or to form a cluster, how different lineages can be defined accurately according the evolutionarily stable gene clusters, LCGbase was developed as a tool to support studies in genomes.

LCGbase involves 38 mammal and 14 other animal genomes to discover and display conserved gene clusters across mammals and their sub-groups to help measuring genes in mammal and revealing the conserved and dynamic rules in the gain and loss process of gene clusters. Further, to complete the service, useful tools are also provided for sequence alignment, gene ontology (GO) annotation, promoter identification, gene expression (co-expression) and evolutionary analysis.

"This database not only provides a way to define lineage-specific and species-specific gene clusters but also facilitates future studies on gene co-regulation, epigenetic control of gene expression, and chromosomal structures in a context of gene clusters and species evolution.” Dr. WANG Dapeng said.

LCGbase is available at http://lcgbase.big.ac.cn/LCGbase/index.php for free.

Paper link: http://www.la-press.com/lcgbase-a-comprehensive-database-for-lineage-based-co-regulated-genes-article-a2956

 An example of the Lcgbase browser (A) and a search result (B). The inquired gene is EnSg00000171612.(Image by Dr. WANG Dapeng)