The goal of this project is to generate a comprehensive list of all the sequence-based functional elements in the Drosophila genome. This will be done by generating a set of developmentally staged and tissue- and cell-specific RNAs for expression profiling using high-density genome tiling microarrays and 454 pyrosequencing of small RNAs. These expression data will be used for sophisticated transcript modeling that integrates extant EST and cDNA sequence and comparative data from the 12 sequenced Drosophila genomes.  These gene models will be experimentally validated and functionally analyzed in RNAi assays. The final product of these efforts will include comprehensive annotations of transcription start sites, exon/intron structures, polyadenylation sites and the cis-elements required for splicing.

Drosophila modENCODE Consortium Members:

LBNL: Sue Celniker (Overall PI), Roger Hoskins, Joe Carlson

Indiana University: Peter Cherbas, Thom Kaufman, Justin Andrews, Justin Kumar

Affymetrix: Tom Gingeras, Aarrib Willingham

Washington University, St. Louis: Michael Brent

University of Connecticut Health Center: Brent Graveley

University of California, Berkeley: Steven Brenner, Sandrine Dudoit

Harvard University: Norbert Perrimon, Bernard Mathey-Prevot

Private modENCODE wiki

Funded by NIGMS - Read the Press Release from the NIH