Chromosome assemblies of the human genome (hg13) were obtained from public databases [67]. Transcript databases included approximately 94,000 human cDNA sequences obtained from GenBank (release 134.0, gbpri and gbhtc categories), and approximately 5 million human expressed sequence tags (ESTs) from dbEST (repository 02202003). Human ESTs were designated according to their cDNA library source (in total about 800) into different tissue types. Pertinent information about cDNA libraries and the corresponding human tissue or cell line was extracted from dbEST and subsequently integrated with library information retrieved from the Mammalian Gene Collection Initiative (MGC) [68], the Integrated Molecular Analysis of Gene Expression Consortium (IMAGE) [69] and the Cancer Genome Anatomy Project (CGAP) [70]. Library information obtained from MGC, IMAGE and CGAP is provided in Additional data file 5.
