Howard J. Jacob

TL;DR: This first comprehensive analysis of the genome sequence of the Brown Norway (BN) rat strain is reported, which is the third complete mammalian genome to be deciphered, and three-way comparisons with the human and mouse genomes resolve details of mammalian evolution.

Abstract: The laboratory rat (Rattus norvegicus) is an indispensable tool in experimental medicine and drug development, having made inestimable contributions to human health. We report here the genome sequence of the Brown Norway (BN) rat strain. The sequence represents a high-quality ‘draft’ covering over 90% of the genome. The BN rat sequence is the third complete mammalian genome to be deciphered, and three-way comparisons with the human and mouse genomes resolve details of mammalian evolution. This first comprehensive analysis includes genes and proteins and their relation to human disease, repeated sequences, comparative genome-wide studies of mammalian orthologous chromosomal regions and rearrangement breakpoints, reconstruction of ancestral karyotypes and the events leading to existing species, rates of variation, and lineage-specific and lineage-independent evolutionary events such as expansion of gene families, orthology relations and protein evolution.

TL;DR: The Collaborative Cross will provide a common reference panel specifically designed for the integrative analysis of complex systems and will change the way the authors approach human health and disease.

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that a single injection of DNA or messenger RNA encoding ZFNs into the one-cell rat embryo leads to a high frequency of animals carrying 25 to 100% disruption at the target locus.

TL;DR: This study demonstrated that a wide variety of RNA species are embedded in the circulating vesicles and suggested that the highly abundant miRNAs may play an important role in biological functions such as protein phosphorylation, RNA splicing, chromosomal abnormality, and angiogenesis.