OriGene Technologies has added Kinase CloneSet, a designated subset of over 500 full-length kinase cDNA clones, to its TrueClone Collection product line.

The Kinase CloneSet approaches the predicted 518 putative genes in the "kinome," i.e. the total number of protein kinase-coding sequences estimated to occur in the human genome. This concept was first put forward by researchers at Sugen headed by Gerard Manning and published in Science (298:1912, 2002) as a starting point for comprehensive analysis of protein phosphorylation in normal and disease states.

OriGene claims that its new product represents the largest commercial source of full-length human kinase genes. Protein kinase genes are known to play key roles in cellular processes including cell division, signal transduction, apoptosis and cell mobility.

The company's TrueClone Collection of 20,000 full-length human cDNAs includes over 75 per cent of the sequences in the NCBI RefSeq database and covers 65-80 per cent of the predicted human cDNA repertoire. All clones match annotated mRNA reference sequences found in the public domains, according to the company.

"Not only does OriGene offer the most comprehensive commercial collection of human cDNAs, it also provides the most complete sets of gene families of important functional groups," commented Zairen Sun, OriGene's senior director of R&D.

Additional cDNA clones from OriGene's 800,000 in-house gene bank will be added to the TrueClone Collection and commercially released as sequences are published, said the firm.

For more information on the new product, visit the company's website or e-mail Karl Kovacs .