A knuckles-and-nodes approach to the integration of microbiological resource data

Providing elementary resources to research institutes, storing a part of the world's biodiversity and carrying out essential research, biological resource centers (BRCS) fulfil an important role in contemporary life sciences. There are currently over 500 BRCS registered at the World Data Center for Microorganisms. All of these institutes offer information on their cultures independently and there is no efficient linkage between the biological material and its related data held by information providers such as Genbank, Swissprot and PubMed. As a result, researchers searching for information on microbial strains or species frequently encounter inconsistencies. This paper presents the StrainInfo.net bioportal for integrating the information provided by BRCS and third party information holders. It is shown how intelligent data integration is the best protection against information overkill and is a necessary precursor for more advanced data mining to further exploit the assets of BRCS. To establish a solid service to the research community, the suggested integration is accomplished following the knuckles-and-nodes approach. Initially implemented as a web interface, the underlying system also provides possibilities for setting up web services. The StrainInfo.net bioportal will be made available at http://www.StrainInfo.net