Development of MHC-Linked Microsatellite Markers in the Domestic Cat and Their Use to Evaluate MHC Diversity in Domestic Cats, Cheetahs, and Gir Lions.

Diversity within the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) reflects the immunological fitness of a population. MHC-linked microsatellite markers provide a simple and an inexpensive method for studying MHC diversity in large-scale studies. We have developed 6 MHC-linked microsatellite markers in the domestic cat and used these, in conjunction with 5 neutral microsatellites, to assess MHC diversity in domestic mixed breed (n = 129) and purebred Burmese (n = 61) cat populations in Australia. The MHC of outbred Australian cats is polymorphic (average allelic richness = 8.52), whereas the Burmese population has significantly lower MHC diversity (average allelic richness = 6.81; P < 0.01). The MHC-linked microsatellites along with MHC cloning and sequencing demonstrated moderate MHC diversity in cheetahs (n = 13) and extremely low diversity in Gir lions (n = 13). Our MHC-linked microsatellite markers have potential future use in diversity and disease studies in other populations and breeds of cats as well as in wild felid species.

BioManager: the use of a bioinformatics web application as a teaching tool in undergraduate bioinformatics training.

The completion of the human genome project, and other genome sequencing projects, has spearheaded the emergence of the field of bioinformatics. Using computer programs to analyse DNA and protein information has become an important area of life science research and development. While it is not necessary for most life science researchers to develop specialist bioinformatic skills (including software development), basic skills in the application of common bioinformatics software and the effective interpretation of results are increasingly required by all life science researchers. Training in bioinformatics is increasingly occurring within the university system as part of existing undergraduate science and specialist degrees. One difficulty in bioinformatics education is the sheer number of software programs required in order to provide a thorough grounding in the subject to the student. Teaching requires either a well-maintained internal server with all the required software, properly interfacing with student terminals, and with sufficient capacity to handle multiple simultaneous requests, or it requires the individual installation and maintenance of every piece of software on each computer. In both cases, there are difficult issues regarding site maintenance and accessibility. In this article, we discuss the use of BioManager, a web-based bioinformatics application integrating a variety of common bioinformatics tools, for teaching, including its role as the main bioinformatics training tool in some Australian and international universities. We discuss some of the issues with using a bioinformatics resource primarily created for research in an undergraduate teaching environment.

A review of bioinformatics degrees in Australia.

Bioinformatics has been a hot topic in Australia's biotechnology circles for the past five years. As with biotechnology in the 1990s, there has been a sudden increase in the number of Bioinformatics undergraduate degrees. For students in the 2005 intake there are six undergraduate Bioinformatics degrees to choose from and another five Bioinformatics streams within a Bachelor of Science degree. The courses vary from three to four years of full-time study. This report aims at dissecting each of these degrees to determine where the differences lie, to give the prospective students an idea as to which degree suits their career goals and to give an overview of the pedagogy of Australian bioinformatics education.