Introduction
The fourth international human chromosome 1 workshop was held at the Sanger Centre, Cambridge, England between the 25th and 27th of June, 1998. The objectives of the forty-four workshop delegates were to examine the progress of global, comparative and physical maps, to discuss the putative identification of cancer and disease genes, and to promote the accessibility of map and sequence information residing at the Sanger Centre, the Genome Database (GDB) and the Chromosome 1 web sites.
The large scale mapping session reviewed progress of the integrated map of White and Matise, and the Sanger Centre radiation hybrid (RH) and physical maps. A number of localized mapping projects using YACs or bacterial clone contigs were also discussed, as well as work involving comparative genomics, which provided an insight into new fields of study on chromosome 1. New technologies applied to genome analysis were reported, including DNA microarrays for comparative genomic hybridisation in tumors, and two dimensional separation of genomic fragments for the detection of chromosomal rearrangements.
The main focus of the cancer and disease gene sessions was the study of 1p34-pter and 1q21-q22. Progress in the mapping of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 2A and Primary Congenital Glaucoma to 1p36 were both reported, whilst deletions of 1p34-pter were implicated in the development of neuroblastoma and other cancers. Versteeg presented evidence for the duplication of a 4.5 megabase (Mb) cluster of locally repetitive sequences between 1p36 and 1q21. Delegates presented work on the characterisation of the Epidermal Differentiation Complex cluster, a description of an MHC paralogous region, and genes involved in the formation of sarcomas and supernumerary rings and giant rods, within 1q21-q22. Work involving the localisation of tumor suppressor genes in 1p31.1, TRMA in 1q23, HDR in 1q42-43 and genes detected in the VWS region 1q32 was also reported.
Easy access to map and sequence data is critical: a computing session gave participants an opportunity to view Webace, a new ACEDB web browser at the Sanger Centre which provides access to mapping and sequence information. Points of entry and methods of querying mapping data were demonstrated for the integrated map of White and Matise, and for GDB.
The meeting concluded with agreement to organise a fifth chromosome 1 workshop, in the next 12-18 months, as a forum to discuss further progress.
Acknowledgments
The costs of the fourth chromosome 1 workshop were supported in part by the Wellcome Trust.