Suggested Xenopus Gene Name Guidelines

1. Xenopus gene names should be identical to human gene names whenever possible.

• Note that names are not the same as symbols - please use the full gene name in the gene name field.
• In examples where the mammalian gene name is a reference to an original Xenopus name, the Xenopus name will be retained. For example chordin in humans is called chordin-like. In this case the gene would retain the name chordin. If the human name is crazy and the mouse name makes sense, please contact us to discuss the example (we will form a nomenclature committee).
  
• Orthology to a mammalian gene must be based on more information than a blast result in order to have the mammalian gene name applied. Synteny data has been generated by Dan Rokhsar for 12,000 tropicalis gene models. If the synteny map looks good please assign a name. http://www.metazome.net
  
• When identity is uncertain be cautious. Use a temporary symbol or name such as "cdx2 [provisional]" until more information is available, at which time the name would be changed and the [provisional] tag removed

2. Gene names should be in lower case and not in italics (although some journals will ask for this).

3. Gene names should contain only Latin letters and Arabic numerals.

4. No punctuation should be used in the gene name UNLESS it is used in the human gene name. If this is the case, retain it.

5. Greek letters will be changed to Latin letters. Roman numerals will be changed to Arabic equivalents

• e.g. b -> beta
• e.g. IV -> 4

6. Gene names should not begin with an "X" unless the X is a part of a standard word (e.g. xombie). The species will be listed in another field.

7. When a gene is duplicated in Xenopus relative to mammals the duplicated genes should be tagged with a .1 or .2

• e.g. bmp7.1 and bmp7.2 in the name field bone morphogenetic protein gene 1 and bone morphogenetic protein gene 2

8. In Xenopus laevis, duplicated genes should be denoted with a "a" or "b" tag.

• e.g. pax2a and pax2b
• There is no period or dash preceding the tag. Duplicates would be pax2.1a and pax2.1b
• The "a" or "b" is only added to laevis genes once a duplicate is identified.

1. Gene symbols should be the same as the human gene symbol

2. Symbols are short-form representations (or abbreviations) of the descriptive gene name.

3. Symbols should only contain Latin letters and Arabic numerals and all be in lower case. e.g. SLC4A4 -> slc4a4

4. Symbols should not contain punctuation.

Zebrafish guidelines
http://zfin.org/zf_info/nomen.html

Human guidelines
http://www.gene.ucl.ac.uk/nomenclature/guidelines.html

Mouse guidelines
http://www.informatics.jax.org/mgihome/nomen/gene.shtml