An encyclopedia of mouse genes

The laboratory mouse is the premier model system for studies of mammalian development due to the powerful classical genetic analysis1 possible (see also the Jackson Laboratory web site, http://www.jax.org/) and the ever-expanding collection of molecular tools2,3. To enhance the utility of the mouse system, we initiated a program to generate a large database of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) that can provide rapid access to genes4‐16.