| Complete functional annotation of genomes is a powerful tool for researchers; however, such annotation is a time-consuming task limited by the availability of experimental data. The function of genes for which there is no experimental data can often be predicted via comparison to related, annotated sequences of known function. We describe here the Reference Genome project, an effort from the Gene Ontology (GO) Consortium to fully annotate twelve genomes to rigorous standards: human, plus eleven organisms that are important models in biomedical research, including mouse, fly, zebrafish, yeast and _E. coli_. To achieve this, we examine existing experimentally based annotations in a phylogenetic context in order to infer the function(s) of ancestral proteins... |
