UP FRONT MATTERS

GUDMAP: The Genitourinary Developmental Molecular Anatomy Project

Andrew P. McMahon ^*1, Bruce J. Aronow , Duncan R. Davidson , Jamie A. Davies , Kevin W. Gaido ^||, Sean Grimmond ^¶, James L. Lessard ^**, Melissa H. Little ^¶, S. Steven Potter ^**, Elizabeth L. Wilder , Pumin Zhang , and for the GUDMAP project

*Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Harvard Stem Cell Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Division of Biomedical Informatics, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio; Medical Research Council Human Genetics Unit, Western General Hospital, and Centre for Integrative Physiology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom; ||Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina; ¶Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia; **Division of Developmental Biology, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio; Renal and Urogenital Development, Kidney Injury and Repair, and Basic Science of Cystic Kidney Disease Research, National Institutes of Health Roadmap Interdisciplinary Research Working Group, Bethesda, Maryland; and Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas

¹ To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: amcmahon{at}mcb.harvard.edu.

	Abstract

In late 2004, an International Consortium of research groups were charged with the task of producing a high-quality molecular anatomy of the developing mammalian urogenital tract (UGT). Given the importance of these organ systems for human health and reproduction, the need for a systematic molecular and cellular description of their developmental programs was deemed a high priority. The information obtained through this initiative is anticipated to enable the highest level of basic and clinical research grounded on a 21st-century view of the developing anatomy. There are three components to the Genitourinary Developmental Molecular Anatomy Project GUDMAP; all of these are intended to provide resources that support research on the kidney and UGT. The first provides ontology of the cell types during UGT development and the molecular hallmarks of those cells as discerned by a variety of procedures, including in situ hybridization, transcriptional profiling, and immunostaining. The second generates novel mouse strains. In these strains, cell types of particular interest within an organ are labeled through the introduction of a specific marker into the context of a gene that exhibits appropriate cell type or structure-specific expression. In addition, the targeting construct enables genetic manipulation within the cell of interest in many of the strains. Finally, the information is annotated, collated, and promptly released at regular intervals, before publication, through a database that is accessed through a Web portal. Presented here is a brief overview of the Genitourinary Developmental Molecular Anatomy Project effort.