[Help] What is a "Unigene" ?

[Meligethes]

Hello,

I don't understand precisely what is a "Unigene"

I have been looking intensively on the internet but I always get "NCBI Unigene database" as a result, I didn't found any definition of what is a Unigene.

According to my comprehension, a Unigene is a cDNA sequence that can produce all the different mRNA that have been found to be related to that cDNA sequence... but I feel confused about it....

Thanks a lot in advance,

M.

[GenoMax]

From the NCBI Unigene site

"UniGene computationally identifies transcripts from the same locus; analyzes expression by tissue, age, and health status; and reports related proteins (protEST) and clone resources"

Details of build procedures for the two flavors of Unigene:
Genome-based http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/UniGene/...gi?item=build2
Transcript-based http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/UniGene/...gi?item=build1

[Meligethes]

Awesome, thank you !!

[bagaric]

i still wonder how to figure out unigenes for a complete genome by NCBI

[GenoMax]

i still wonder how to figure out unigenes for a complete genome by NCBI

You can use the "Limits" option in Unigene search and then choose the organism field to limit the search for a specific genome (attached image shows human).

Or "limiting" the search by taxonomy ID may be better (e.g. 6239 for C. elegans). You can find the taxonomy ID's here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/wwwtax.cgi