Chromosome 19 Open Reading Frame 54 (C19orf54)

The finished human chromosome 19 sequence, comprising a gene density more than double the genome-wide average1, 2, marks the culmination of 18 yr of research spanning the history of modern genomics.

The Department of Energy's (DOE) role in the project was initiated through an effort to understand how the body responds to and repairs radiation damage3, 4. A link between unrepaired DNA damage and human cancer5, and the subsequent mapping of multiple DNA repair genes to the chromosome6, provided the impetus for the DOE to select the chromosome as one of its sequencing targets7. The physical mapping was completed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in 1995 with the generation of the first high-quality metric map of a human chromosome8.