Use of Genome Browsers to Locate Your Favorite Genes

The completion of whole-genome sequencing projects offers the opportunity of creating high-resolution maps of specific segments in a known genomic DNA sequence. For this purpose, several genome browsers have been created. They include the map-view (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/mapview/), the Ensembl genome browser (http://www.ensembl.org/), and the genome browser at UCSC (http://genome.ucsc.edu/). For the beginners in the field, through a specific example, this chapter provides a step-by-step procedure for creating a map using the genome browser at UCSC. The example describes mapping, in the human genome, the promoter region of the NF-IL6 gene. The procedure is applicable to creating maps of the desired regions in genomes of other species available at the genome browser at UCSC.