How Are Ensembl'S Gene Start And End Coordinates Determined?

Question

[Dr.Bunsen]

Within Ensembl Biomart, under "Attributes" there are options to output gene start and end coordinates. My question is, how are these gene start and end positions determined? From observation, it seems that the gene start and end often, but not always, correspond to the start and end positions of the largest transcript from a given locus. Does anyone know the location of the documentation for how these positions are determined by Ensembl? Thanks in advance for the help.

Answer 1

[Bert Overduin]

The Ensembl gene start and end coordinates correspond to the outermost transcript start and end coordinates. These can be part of the same transcript or belong to two different transcripts. An example of the latter is the human BRCA2 gene, where the start coordinate corresponds to the start coordinate of transcript ENST00000380152 (BRCA2-001) and the end coordinate to the end coordinate of transcript ENST00000544455 (BRCA2-201).

[Dr.Bunsen]

Thanks for the clarification Bert, you are always a big help.