13.1. The User Interface of the Gene Sorter

The Gene Sorter can collect all the known genes in disease-related regions of DNA into a list of candidate genes. This list is displayed in a table, illustrated in Figure 13-1, that includes summary information on each gene and hyperlinks to additional information. The candidate list can be filtered to eliminate genes that are obviously not relevant, such as genes expressed only in the kidneys when the viewer is researching a genetic disease of the lungs. The Gene Sorter is also useful in other contexts where one wants to look at more than one gene at once, such as when one is studying genes that are expressed in similar ways or genes that have similar known functions. The Gene Sorter is available currently for the human, mouse, rat, fruit fly, and C. elegans genomes.

The controls on the top of the screen specify which version of which genome to use. The table underneath contains one row per gene.