Gene Wiki

The Gene Wiki is a project within Wikipedia that aims to describe the relationships and functions of all
human genes. It was established to transfer information from scientific resources to Wikipedia stub
articles.[1][2][3]

The Gene Wiki project also initiated publication of gene-specific review articles in the journal Gene,
together with the editing of the gene-specific pages in Wikipedia.[4]

Project goals and scope

Number of gene articles

The human genome contains an estimated 20,000–25,000 protein-coding genes.[5] The goal of the Gene
Wiki project is to create seed articles for every notable human gene, that is, every gene whose function has
been assigned in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. Approximately half of human genes have assigned
function, therefore the total number of articles seeded by the Gene Wiki project would be expected to be in
the range of 10,000–15,000. To date, approximately 11,000 articles have been created or augmented to
include Gene Wiki project content.

Expansion

Once seed articles have been established, the hope and expectation is that these will be annotated and
expanded by editors ranging in experience from the lay audience to students to professionals and
academics.[1]

Proteins encoded by genes

Only a small portion of the genome actually encodes protein in the human genome. Understanding the
function of a gene that codes for a protein generally requires understanding of the function of the
corresponding protein. In addition to including basic information about the gene, the project therefore also
includes information about the protein encoded by the gene. The function of other portions of the genome,
non-coding DNA, also called "junk" DNA in the past because they had no apparent function, actually are
thought to have regulatory functions.

Gene Wiki generated content

Stubs for the Gene Wiki project are created by a bot and contain links to the following primary gene/protein
databases:

HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee – official gene name

Entrez – Gene database
OMIM (Mendelian Inheritance in Man) – database that catalogues all the known diseases
with a genetic component
 Amigo – Gene Ontology
HomoloGene – gene homologs in other species
SymAtlasRNA – gene expression pattern in tissues[6]
Protein Data Bank – 3D structure of protein encoded by the gene
UniProt (universal protein resource) – a central repository of protein data

Response
A report found that between 2013 and 2017, the content which Gene Wiki contributed to Wikipedia got
crowdsourced development over time.[7]

References
1. Huss JW, Orozco C, Goodale J, Wu C, Batalov S, Vickers TJ, Valafar F, Su AI (July 2008). "A
Gene Wiki for Community Annotation of Gene Function" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/a
rticles/PMC2443188). PLOS Biology. 6 (7): e175. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.0060175 (https://
doi.org/10.1371%2Fjournal.pbio.0060175). PMC 2443188 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pm
c/articles/PMC2443188). PMID 18613750 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18613750).
2. Huss JW, Orozco C, Goodale J, Wu C, Batalov S, Vickers TJ, Valafar F, Su AI. "SciVee
Pubcast: A Gene Wiki for Community Annotation of Gene Function" (https://web.archive.org/
web/20100724055742/http://www.scivee.tv/pubcast/18613750). Archived from the original (h
ttp://www.scivee.tv/pubcast/18613750) on 2010-07-24. Retrieved 2008-11-19.
3. Huss JW; Lindenbaum P; Martone M; et al. (January 2010). "The Gene Wiki: community
intelligence applied to human gene annotation" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P
MC2808918). Nucleic Acids Research. 38 (Database issue): D633–9.
doi:10.1093/nar/gkp760 (https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fnar%2Fgkp760). PMC 2808918 (https://
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2808918). PMID 19755503 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nl
m.nih.gov/19755503).
4. Tsueng G, Good BM, Ping P, Golemis E, Hanukoglu I, van Wijnen AJ, Su AI (2 May 2016).
"Gene Wiki Reviews-Raising the quality and accessibility of information about the human
genome" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5944608). Gene. 592 (2): 235–8.
doi:10.1016/j.gene.2016.04.053 (https://doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.gene.2016.04.053).
PMC 5944608 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5944608). PMID 27150585
(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27150585).
5. Clamp M, Fry B, Kamal M, Xie X, Cuff J, Lin MF, Kellis M, Lindblad-Toh K, Lander ES
(December 2007). "Distinguishing protein-coding and noncoding genes in the human
genome" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2148306). Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences USA. 104 (49): 19428–33. doi:10.1073/pnas.0709013104 (ht
tps://doi.org/10.1073%2Fpnas.0709013104). PMC 2148306 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/p
mc/articles/PMC2148306). PMID 18040051 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18040051).
6. Su AI, Wiltshire T, Batalov S, Lapp H, Ching KA, Block D, Zhang J, Soden R, Hayakawa M,
Kreiman G, Cooke MP, Walker JR, Hogenesch JB (April 2004). "A gene atlas of the mouse
and human protein-encoding transcriptomes" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PM
C395923). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. 101 (16): 6062–7.
Bibcode:2004PNAS..101.6062S (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2004PNAS..101.6062
S). doi:10.1073/pnas.0400782101 (https://doi.org/10.1073%2Fpnas.0400782101).
PMC 395923 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC395923). PMID 15075390 (http
s://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15075390).
7. Zinovyev, Andrei; Czerwinska, Urszula; Cantini, Laura; Barillot, Emmanuel; Frahm, Klaus
M.; Shepelyansky, Dima L.; Rzhetsky, Andrey (18 February 2020). "Collective intelligence
defines biological functions in Wikipedia as communities in the hidden protein connection
network" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7048313). PLOS Computational
Biology. 16 (2): e1007652. Bibcode:2020PLSCB..16E7652Z (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/
abs/2020PLSCB..16E7652Z). doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007652 (https://doi.org/10.1371%2
Fjournal.pcbi.1007652). PMC 7048313 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7048
313). PMID 32069277 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32069277).

Further reading
Good BM, Howe DG, Lin SM, Kibbe WA,
Su AI (2011). "Mining the Gene Wiki for
functional genomic knowledge" (https://ww
w.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3271
090). BMC Genomics. 12: 603.
doi:10.1186/1471-2164-12-603 (https://doi.
org/10.1186%2F1471-2164-12-603).
PMC 3271090 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.g
ov/pmc/articles/PMC3271090).
PMID 22165947 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.
nih.gov/22165947).
Good BM, Clarke EL, de Alfaro L, Su AI
(January 2012). "The Gene Wiki in 2011:
community intelligence applied to human
gene annotation" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.ni
h.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3245148). Nucleic
Acids Research. 40 (Database issue):
D1255–61. doi:10.1093/nar/gkr925 (https://
doi.org/10.1093%2Fnar%2Fgkr925).
PMC 3245148 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.g
ov/pmc/articles/PMC3245148).
PMID 22075991 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.
nih.gov/22075991).
Good BM, Clarke EL, Loguercio S, Su AI
(2012). "Linking genes to diseases with a
SNPedia-Gene Wiki mashup" (https://ww
w.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3337
266). J Biomed Semantics. 3 (Suppl 1): S6.
doi:10.1186/2041-1480-3-S1-S6 (https://do
i.org/10.1186%2F2041-1480-3-S1-S6).
PMC 3337266 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.g
ov/pmc/articles/PMC3337266).
PMID 22541597 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.
nih.gov/22541597).
Su AI, Good BM, van Wijnen AJ
(December 2013). "Gene Wiki Reviews:
marrying crowdsourcing with traditional
peer review". Gene. 531 (2): 125.
doi:10.1016/j.gene.2013.08.093 (https://do
i.org/10.1016%2Fj.gene.2013.08.093).
PMID 24012870 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.
nih.gov/24012870).

External links
Spagat E (2008-07-09). "Edit your DNA: 'Gene wiki' to debut on Wikipedia" (https://abcnews.
go.com/Technology/story?id=5353376&page=1). The Associated Press (in ABC News.
Retrieved 2011-09-29.
McKenney AS (2008-07-08). "Archiving Information About The Human Genome Using
Wikipedia" (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/113891.php). IT / Internet / E-mail
News. Medical News Today. Retrieved 2008-07-19.
Tay L (2008-07-10). "Wikipedia hosts human gene repository" (https://web.archive.org/web/2
0080713045146/http://www.itnews.com.au/News/80128,wikipedia-hosts-human-gene-repos
itory.aspx). iTnews Australia. Haymarket Media. Archived from the original (http://www.itnew
s.com.au/News/80128,wikipedia-hosts-human-gene-repository.aspx) on 2008-07-13.
Retrieved 2008-07-19.
Mitch Waldrop (3 September 2008). "Big data: Wikiomics" (https://doi.org/10.1038%2F45502
2a). Nature. 455 (7209): 22–25. doi:10.1038/455022a (https://doi.org/10.1038%2F455022a).
PMID 18769412 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18769412).
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gene_Wiki&oldid=1138556647"