Mus musculus (House Mouse)

Gene density across the nineteen chromosomes of the house mouse.

Every organism arranges its genes across chromosomes, and the distribution varies between species. This piece visualizes gene density — the number of protein-coding genes in each region of each chromosome — for Mus musculus across its nineteen autosomes.

The mouse genome is highly uneven, with genes clustered tightly in some regions and spread sparsely across vast stretches of others. Part of a three-piece series rendering gene density across three organisms: a mouse, an oak, and a lichen-forming fungus.

Provenance

GENCODE Release vM38 — Mus musculus (GRCm39 assembly)
https://www.gencodegenes.org/mouse/release_M38.html
GENCODE Consortium (EMBL-EBI, UCSC, Wellcome Sanger Institute, MIT, CRG). GRCm39 reference assembly from the Genome Reference Consortium.

Materials

Archival giclée print on fine-art paper — a faithful digital reproduction of a pen-plotted work. Each print ships with a signed data-provenance insert card.

Included

• One archival giclée print (unframed)
• Signed data-provenance insert card
• Care instructions

Studio

Genetics of Design is a data art studio that uses pen plotting as its medium. Each piece begins with a public record — road networks, genomes, star catalogs, species data — translated through custom code into composition, density, and line, and published alongside the provenance of the data it came from.