Whole Exome Sequencing in The Rat

The rat genome was sequenced in 2004 with the aim to improve human health altered by disease and environmental influences through gene discovery and animal model validation. Whole exome sequencing (WES) is a powerful, Next Generation sequencing tool for detecting gene variants in exons of the genome and expanding the rat genome database. Using an in-silico approach, we designed probes targeting the rat exome and compared captured somatic mutations in cancer-related genes to validated cancer genes in the human database, Catalogue of Somatic Mutations in Cancer (COSMIC).