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Abstract
Most of the human genome has now been sequenced and about 30,000 potential open reading
frames have been identified, indicating that we use these 30,000 genes to functionally
organize our biologic activities. However, functions of many genes are still unknown
despite intensive efforts using bioinformatics as well as transgenic and knockout
mice. Retrovirus-mediated gene transfer is a powerful tool that can be used to understand
gene functions. We have developed a variety of retrovirus vectors and efficient packaging
cell lines that have facilitated the development of efficient functional expression
cloning methods. In this review, we describe retrovirus-mediated strategies used for
investigation of gene functions and function-based screening strategies.