ACGT...TGCA — has every possible DNA-based initialism been used by the bioinformatics/genomics community?

 

Short answer

Yes. 

Long answer…

You might work in a field that's related to biology, genetics, genomics, or bioinformatics. You might be working on a new piece of software, or a research proposal, or you need to form a committee. Maybe you have even been given the power to name a new research facility.

Suddenly you have an inspiration...why don't we name our new software, proposal, committee, or facility after a DNA-based initialism! That would be clever and make us stand out from the crowd, right? Maybe...maybe not.

What follows is a fairly exhaustive list of — presumably intentional — DNA-based initialisms that are in use (or have been used). As of 2020-07-20 the current list contains 67 names in total with all 24 possible combinations of [ACGT] being used. The additions since I first created this page are included at the end.

See also this related blog post by David Lawrence from 2014, which I only discovered in mid-2020. His post — which beat me to the punch by just a couple of weeks! — has provided me with a few additional examples which I hadn’t heard about and which have now been included here.

Please let me know of any errors or omissions, though note that potential names have to be initialisms and has to be somewhat related to to the fields of genetics, genomics, or bioinformatics.

ACGT

  1. Advisory Committee on Genetic Testing — Committee — 1996
  2. Alliance for Cancer Gene Therapy — Research Network — 2001
  3. A Comparative Genomics Tool — Software — 2003
  4. Advancing Clinico-genomic Trials on Cancer — Research Project — 2011
  5. Algorithms in Computational Genomics at Tau — Lab web page — ???
  6. Advanced Center for Genome Technology — Research Center? — ???
  7. African Centre for Gene Technologies — Research Network — ???
  8. Applied Computational Genomics Team — Research Group — ???
  9. Amino aCids To Genome — Software — 2017
  10. Analysis of Czech Genomes for Theranostics — Research Project? — 2020?

ACTG

  1. Automatic Correspondence of Tags and Genes — Software — 2007

AGCT

  1. Applied Genomics & Cancer Theraeputics — Research Program? — ???

AGTC

  1. Applied Genomics Technology Center — Core Facility? — 1998
  2. Advanced Genome Technologies Core — Core Facility — ???
  3. University of Kentucky Advanced Genetic Technologies Center — Core Facility (now defunct?) — ???

ATCG

  1. Applied Technology in Conservation Genetics — Research Lab — ???

ATGC

  1. Arabidopsis Thaliana Genome Center — Core Facility? — 2000?
  2. Another Tool for Genome Comparison — Software — 2001
  3. Advanced Thermal Gradient dna Chip — Patent — 2002
  4. Another Tool for Genomic Comprehension — Database & web tool — 2012
  5. Alignable Tight Genomic Clusters - Database - 2009

CAGT

  1. Center for Advanced Genomic Technology — Research Facility — 2000?
  2. Center for Applied Genetics and Technology — Research Facility — 2004
  3. Center for Applied Genetic Technologies) — Research Facility — ???
  4. Clustering AGgregation Tool — Software — 2012?

CATG

  1. Cross-legume Advances Through Genomics — Conference — 2004?
  2. Center for Advanced Technologies in Genomics — Research Facility — 2008

CGAT

  1. Comparative Genome Analysis Tool — Software — 2006
  2. Computational Genomics Analysis and Training — Training program — 2010
  3. Computational Genomics Analysis Toolkit — Software — 2013
  4. Centre for Gene Analysis and Technology — Research Facility — ???
  5. Canadian Genome Analysis and Technology program — Research program (now defunct) — 1992

CGTA

  1. CNS Gene therapy Translation Acceleration - Research Group - ???

CTAG

  1. Corn Transcriptome Analysis Group — Working Group — 2014
  2. Canadian Triticum Advancement Through Genomics - Research project - 2011

CTGA

  1. the Catalogue for Transmission Genetics in Arabs — Database — 2006

GACT

  1. The Center for Genetic Architecture of Complex Traits - Research Center - 2013

GATC

  1. Genetic Analysis Technology Consortium — Biotech Consortium (now defunct?) — circa 1997?

GCAT

  1. Genome Comparison & Analytic Testing — Software? — ???
  2. Genome Consortium for Active Teaching — Teaching Consortium — 2007?
  3. Gene-set Cohesion Analysis Tool — Software — 2011 (or 2007) 4.Genotype-Conditional Association Test — Statistical method — 2015
  4. Genomics, Computational biology And Technology - study section - ???

GCTA

  1. Genome-wide Complex Trait Analysis — Software — 2011

GTAC

  1. Gene Technology Access Center — Teaching Facility — 2000
  2. Genomics Technology Access Center — Core Facility — 2009?
  3. Genome Technology Access Center — Core Facility — 2010
  4. Genomics/Transcriptomics Analysis Core — Core Facility — ???
  5. Genomes and Transcriptomes of Arctic Chromists — Research Program — 2012
  6. Gene Technology Advisory Committee — Government Committee — ???

GTCA

  1. Genomic Tetranucleotide Composition Analysis — Database — 2006
  2. Genome Transcriptome Correlation Analysis — Software — 2007

TACG

  1. Talking About Computing and Genomics — Workshop — 2013

TAGC

  1. The Applied Genomics Core — Core Facility — 1998
  2. The Ashkenazi Genome Consortium — Consortium — 2012
  3. Technological Advances for Genomics and Clinics — Research Lab/Program? — ???
  4. The Arts & Genomics Centre — An Arts/Science Center — ???
  5. The Allied Genetics Conference — Conference — 2016?
  6. Taxon-Annotated GC plots — software visualisation method/tool — 2013

TCAG

  1. The Centre for Applied Genomics — Research Facility — 2007?
  2. The Center for the Advancement of Genomics — Research Facility (superseded by this) — ???

TCGA

  1. The Centre for Genetic Anthropology — Research Facility — 1996
  2. The Tayside Centre for Genomic Analysis — Core facility — 2001 (?)
  3. The Center for Genomic Application — Core Facility — 2004
  4. The Cancer Genome Atlas — Research Program — 2006

TGAC

  1. The Genome Access Course — Training Course — 2002
  2. The Genome Analysis Center — Research Facility — 2009

TGCA

  1. The Genome Counselling App — iOS Application — 2014
 

Updates:

  • 2020-08-20 Added 5th example of ATGC, 3rd example of AGTC, 2nd example of CTAG, and 4th example of GCAT (all courtesy of David Lawrence)

  • 2020-07-18 Added 10th example of ACGT

  • 2019-07-23 Added 9th example of ACGT (thanks to Sam Lent @samanthalent)

  • 2016-09-03 Added 4th example of TCGA (thanks to @malcolmacaulay)

  • 2016-02-16 Added 6th example of TAGC

  • 2015-09-11 - Added 5th example of TAGC

  • 2015-07-06 - Added 8th example of ACGT

  • 2015-04-06 - Added 4th example of GCTA (thanks to John Didion)

  • 2014-12-12 - Added first usage of TACG (thanks to @NazeefaFatima)

  • 2014-04-25 - Added Jeff Ross-Ibarra's planned use of CTAG

  • 2014-04-25 - Included a second instance of AGTC

  • 2014-05-18 - Included a fourth example of TAGC

  • 2014-09-08 - Included first usage of CGTA, GACT, and TGCA