HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee

The HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC) is a committee of the

HGNC
Human Genome Organisation (HUGO) that sets the standards for human gene
nomenclature. The HGNC approves a unique and meaningful name for every known
human gene,[4] based on a query of experts. In addition to the name, which is usually
1 to 10 words long, the HGNC also assigns a symbol (a short group of characters) to
every gene. As with an SI symbol, a gene symbol is like an abbreviation but is more
than that, being a second unique name that can stand on its own just as much as
substitute for the longer name. It may not necessarily "stand for" the initials of the Content
name, although many gene symbols do reflect that origin. Description HGNC is
responsible for
approving
unique symbols
Contents and names for
human loci,
Purpose
including protein
Naming guidelines
coding genes,
Naming procedure RNA genes and
Revision pseudogenes,
See also to allow
References unambiguous
External links scientific
communication.
Data types Gene
Purpose captured nomenclature

Especially gene abbreviations/symbols but also full gene names are often not
Organisms Human
specific for a single gene. A marked example is CAP which can refer to any of 6 Contact
different genes (BRD4, CAP1, HACD1, LNPEP, SERPINB6, and SORBS1). Research center EMBL-EBI, UK;

The HGNC short gene names, or gene symbols, unlike previously used or published Primary citation Yates & al.
symbols, are specifically assigned to one gene only. This can result in less common (2017)[1]
abbreviations being selected but reduces confusion as to which gene is referred to. Access
Website www
Naming guidelines .genenames.org
www
The HGNC summarises its approach to naming genes and assigning symbols (gene
.genenames.org
name abbreviations) as follows:
/news
1. gene symbols must be unique Download URL Statistics &
2. symbols should only containLatin letters and Arabic numerals Downloads
3. symbols should not containpunctuation or "G" for gene Custom
4. symbols do not contain any reference to thespecies they are encoded
Downloads
in, i.e. "H/h" for human
HGNC Biomart
The full description of HGNC's nomenclature guidelines can be found on their web
site [1]. HGNC advocates the appendices _v1, _v2,.. to distinguish between different
Web service URL rest.genenames
splice variants and _pr1, _pr2,.. for promoter variants of a single gene.
.org
HGNC also states that "gene nomenclature should evolve with new technologyrather Tools
than be restrictive as sometimes occurs when historical and single gene Web HGNC
nomenclature systems are applied."[5] Comparison of
Orthology
Comprehensive human gene naming guidelines were last published in 2002,[6] but
Predictions,[2][3]
the HGNC has subsequently issued guides to specific locus types such as
Symbol report
endogenous retroviral loci,[7] structural variants [8] and non-coding RNAs.[9][10]
search
Miscellaneous
Naming procedure
Curation policy Yes
When assigning new gene nomenclature the HGNC make efforts to contact authors
who have published on the human gene in question by email, and their responses to the proposed nomenclature are requested. HGNC
also coordinates with the related Mouse and Rat Genomic Nomenclature Committees, other database curators, and experts for given
specific gene families or sets of genes.

Revision
The gene name revision procedure is similar to the naming procedure, but changing a standardised gene name after establishment of a
consensus can create confusion and the merit of this is therefore controversial. For this reason the HGNC aims to change a gene name
only if agreement for that change can be reached among a majority of researchers working on that gene.

See also
Human Genome Organisation(HUGO)
Human Genome Project
Human genome
Gene
Gene nomenclature

References
1. Yates, B; Braschi, B; Gray, KA; Seal, RL; Tweedie, S; Bruford, EA (Jan 2017)."Genenames.org: the HGNC and
VGNC resources in 2017"(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5210531). Nucleic Acids Research. 45
(Database issue): D619–D625.doi:10.1093/nar/gkw1033 (https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fnar%2Fgkw1033) .
PMC 5210531 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5210531) . PMID 27799471 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.ni
h.gov/pubmed/27799471).
2. Wright, MW; Eyre, TA; Lush, MJ; Povey, S; Bruford, EA (Nov 2005). "HCOP: the HGNC comparison of orthology
predictions search tool".Mammalian Genome. 16 (11): 827–8. doi:10.1007/s00335-005-0103-2(https://doi.org/10.10
07%2Fs00335-005-0103-2). PMID 16284797 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16284797).
3. Eyre, TA; Wright, MW; Lush, MJ; Bruford, EA(Jan 2007). "HCOP: a searchable database of human orthology
predictions". Briefings in bioinformatics. 8 (1): 2–5. doi:10.1093/bib/bbl030 (https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fbib%2Fbbl03
0). PMID 16951416 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16951416).
4. https://www.genenames.org/about/overview
5. Shows, TB; McAlpine, PJ; Boucheix, C; Collins, FS; Conneally, PM; Frézal, J; Gershowitz, H; Goodfellow
, PN; et al.
(1987). "Guidelines for human gene nomenclature. An international systemfor human gene nomenclature (ISGN,
1987)" (https://www.genenames.org/sites/genenames.org/files/documents/PMID3507270.pdf)(PDF). Cytogenetics
and Cell Genetics. 46 (1–4): 11–28. doi:10.1159/000132471 (https://doi.org/10.1159%2F000132471).
PMID 3507270 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3507270).
6. Wain, HM; Bruford, EA; Lovering, RC; Lush,MJ; Wright, MW; Povey, S (Apr 2002). "Guidelines for human gene
nomenclature". Genomics. 79 (4): 464–70. doi:10.1006/geno.2002.6748(https://doi.org/10.1006%2Fgeno.2002.674
8). PMID 11944974 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11944974).
 7. Mayer, J; Blomberg, J; Seal, RL (May 4, 2011). "A revised nomenclature for transcribed human endogenous
retroviral loci" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3113919). Mobile DNA. 2 (1): 7. doi:10.1186/1759-
8753-2-7 (https://doi.org/10.1186%2F1759-8753-2-7). PMC 3113919 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PM
C3113919) . PMID 21542922 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21542922).
8. Seal, RL; Wright, MW; Gray, KA; Bruford, EA (May 1, 2013). "Vive la différence: naming structural variants in the
human reference genome"(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3648363). Human Genomics. 7: 12.
doi:10.1186/1479-7364-7-12(https://doi.org/10.1186%2F1479-7364-7-12). PMC 3648363 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.
gov/pmc/articles/PMC3648363) . PMID 23634723 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23634723).
9. Wright, MW; Bruford, EA (Jan 2011)."Naming 'junk': human non-protein coding RNA (ncRNA) gene nomenclature"
(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3051107). Human Genomics. 5 (2): 90–8. doi:10.1186/1479-7364-5-
2-90 (https://doi.org/10.1186%2F1479-7364-5-2-90). PMC 3051107 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC
3051107) . PMID 21296742 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21296742).
10. Wright, MW (Apr 9, 2014)."A short guide to long non-coding RNA gene nomenclature"(https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.go
v/pmc/articles/PMC4021045). Human Genomics. 8 (1): 7. doi:10.1186/1479-7364-8-7(https://doi.org/10.1186%2F14
79-7364-8-7). PMC 4021045 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4021045) . PMID 24716852 (https://w
ww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24716852).

External links
HGNC homepage
HUGO homepage

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