EST-based analysis of gene expression in the human cochlea

Hearing is one of the vital senses helping to perceive, reflect and communicate with the world around us. Genetics, developmental conditions, mechanical damage, infections, ototoxic medications, and aging are among the factors disabling or deteriorating this sense. The cochlea is a sensory organ responsible for hearing. Over 15,000 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) extracted from this organ had been previously clustered with other sequences and aligned to earlier versions of the human genome and known genes. This is especially important as more genomic and phenotypic data becomes available almost on a daily basis. Many transcripts corresponding to ESTs present in the dataset might not be expressed as proteins, but instead are degraded by nonsense-mediated mRNA decay or other cell surveillance mechanisms. Large-scale sequencing of tissue-specific genes and fast yet reliable mapping of sequences will help to identify key components of sound transduction and speed up progress in hearing research.