Number of gene articles The human genome contains an estimated 20,000–25,000 protein-coding genes. The goal of the Gene Wiki project is to create seed articles for every notable human gene, that is, every gene whose function has been assigned in the peer-reviewed scientific literature. Approximately half of human genes have assigned function, therefore the total number of articles seeded by the Gene Wiki project would be expected to be in the range of 10,000 - 15,000. To date, approximately 10,271 articles have been created or augmented to include Gene Wiki project content.

Expansion Once seed articles have been established, the hope and expectation is that these will be annotated and expanded by editors ranging in experience from the lay audience to students to professionals and academics.

Proteins encoded by genes The majority of genes encode proteins hence understanding the function of a gene generally requires understanding of the function of the corresponding protein. In addition to including basic information about the gene, the project therefore also includes information about the protein encoded by the gene.

Stubs for the Gene Wiki project are created by a bot and contain links to the following primary gene/protein databases

• HUGO Gene Nomenclature Committee – official gene name
• Entrez – Gene database
• OMIM (Mendelian Inheritance in Man) – database that catalogues all the known diseases with a genetic component
• Amigo – Gene Ontology
• HomoloGene – gene homologs in other species
• SymAtlasRNA – gene expression pattern in tissues
• Protein Data Bank – 3D structure of protein encoded by the gene
• Uniprot (universal protein resource) – a central repository of protein data ce) – a central repository of protein data