TACT: Transcriptome Auto-annotation Conducting Tool of H-InvDB

Transcriptome Auto-annotation Conducting Tool (TACT) is a newly developed web-based automated tool for conducting functional annotation of transcripts by the integration of sequence similarity searches and functional motif predictions. We developed the TACT system by integrating two kinds of similarity searches, FASTY and BLASTX, against protein sequence databases, UniProtKB (Swiss-Prot/TrEMBL) and RefSeq, and a unified motif prediction program, InterProScan, into the ORF-prediction pipeline originally designed for the ‘H-Invitational’ human transcriptome annotation project. This system successively applies these constituent programs to an mRNA sequence in order to predict the most plausible ORF and the function of the protein encoded. In this study, we applied the TACT system to 19 574 non-redundant human transcripts registered in H-InvDB and evaluated its predictive power by the degree of agreement with human-curated functional annotation in H-InvDB. As a result, the TACT system could assign functional description to 12 559 transcripts (64.2%), the remainder being hypothetical proteins. Furthermore, the overall agreement of functional annotation with H-InvDB, including those transcripts annotated as hypothetical proteins, was 83.9% (16 432/19 574). These results show that the TACT system is useful for functional annotation and that the prediction of ORFs and protein functions is highly accurate and close to the results of human curation. TACT is freely available at

GenBank

GenBank® is a comprehensive database that contains publicly available nucleotide sequences for more than 250 000 formally described species. These sequences are obtained primarily through submissions from individual laboratories and batch submissions from large-scale sequencing projects, including whole-genome shotgun (WGS) and environmental sampling projects. Most submissions are made using the web-based BankIt or standalone Sequin programs, and accession numbers are assigned by GenBank staff upon receipt. Daily data exchange with the European Nucleotide Archive (ENA) and the DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ) ensures worldwide coverage. GenBank is accessible through the NCBI Entrez retrieval system, which integrates data from the major DNA and protein sequence databases along with taxonomy, genome, mapping, protein structure and domain information, and the biomedical journal literature via PubMed. BLAST provides sequence similarity searches of GenBank and other sequence databases. Complete bimonthly releases and daily updates of the GenBank database are available by FTP. To access GenBank and its related retrieval and analysis services, begin at the NCBI home page: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

NIASGBdb: NIAS Genebank databases for genetic resources and plant disease information

The National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences (NIAS) is implementing the NIAS Genebank Project for conservation and promotion of agrobiological genetic resources to contribute to the development and utilization of agriculture and agricultural products. The project’s databases (NIASGBdb; http://www.gene.affrc.go.jp/databases_en.php) consist of a genetic resource database and a plant diseases database, linked by a web retrieval database. The genetic resources database has plant and microorganism search systems to provide information on research materials, including passport and evaluation data for genetic resources with the desired properties. To facilitate genetic diversity research, several NIAS Core Collections have been developed. The NIAS Rice (Oryza sativa) Core Collection of Japanese Landraces contains information on simple sequence repeat (SSR) polymorphisms. SSR marker information for azuki bean (Vigna angularis) and black gram (V. mungo) and DNA sequence data from some selected Japanese strains of the genus Fusarium are also available. A database of plant diseases in Japan has been developed based on the listing of common names of plant diseases compiled by the Phytopathological Society of Japan. Relevant plant and microorganism genetic resources are associated with the plant disease names by the web retrieval database and can be obtained from the NIAS Genebank for research or educational purposes

NBRP databases: databases of biological resources in Japan

The National BioResource Project (NBRP) is a Japanese project that aims to establish a system for collecting, preserving and providing bioresources for use as experimental materials for life science research. It is promoted by 27 core resource facilities, each concerned with a particular group of organisms, and by one information center. The NBRP database is a product of this project. Thirty databases and an integrated database-retrieval system (BioResource World: BRW) have been created and made available through the NBRP home page (http://www.nbrp.jp). The 30 independent databases have individual features which directly reflect the data maintained by each resource facility. The BRW is designed for users who need to search across several resources without moving from one database to another. BRW provides access to a collection of 4.5-million records on bioresources including wild species, inbred lines, mutants, genetically engineered lines, DNA clones and so on. BRW supports summary browsing, keyword searching, and searching by DNA sequences or gene ontology. The results of searches provide links to online requests for distribution of research materials. A circulation system allows users to submit details of papers published on research conducted using NBRP resources

The 2011 Nucleic Acids Research Database Issue and the online Molecular Biology Database Collection

The current 18th Database Issue of Nucleic Acids Research features descriptions of 96 new and 83 updated online databases covering various areas of molecular biology. It includes two editorials, one that discusses COMBREX, a new exciting project aimed at figuring out the functions of the ‘conserved hypothetical’ proteins, and one concerning BioDBcore, a proposed description of the ‘minimal information about a biological database’. Papers from the members of the International Nucleotide Sequence Database collaboration (INSDC) describe each of the participating databases, DDBJ, ENA and GenBank, principles of data exchange within the collaboration, and the recently established Sequence Read Archive. A testament to the longevity of databases, this issue includes updates on the RNA modification database, Definition of Secondary Structure of Proteins (DSSP) and Homology-derived Secondary Structure of Proteins (HSSP) databases, which have not been featured here in >12 years. There is also a block of papers describing recent progress in protein structure databases, such as Protein DataBank (PDB), PDB in Europe (PDBe), CATH, SUPERFAMILY and others, as well as databases on protein structure modeling, protein–protein interactions and the organization of inter-protein contact sites. Other highlights include updates of the popular gene expression databases, GEO and ArrayExpress, several cancer gene databases and a detailed description of the UK PubMed Central project. The Nucleic Acids Research online Database Collection, available at: http://www.oxfordjournals.org/nar/database/a/, now lists 1330 carefully selected molecular biology databases. The full content of the Database Issue is freely available online at the Nucleic Acids Research web site (http://nar.oxfordjournals.org/)

Comprehensive Sequence Analysis of 24,783 Barley Full-Length cDNAs Derived from 12 Clone Libraries

Full-length cDNA (FLcDNA) libraries consisting of 172,000 clones were constructed from a two-row malting barley cultivar (Hordeum vulgare 'Haruna Nijo') under normal and stressed conditions. After sequencing the clones from both ends and clustering the sequences, a total of 24,783 complete sequences were produced. By removing duplicates between these and publicly available sequences, 22,651 representative sequences were obtained: 17,773 were novel barley FLcDNAs, and 1,699 were barley specific. Highly conserved genes were found in the barley FLcDNA sequences for 721 of 881 rice (Oryza sativa) trait genes with 50% or greater identity. These FLcDNA resources from our Haruna Nijo cDNA libraries and the full-length sequences of representative clones will improve our understanding of the biological functions of genes in barley, which is the cereal crop with the fourth highest production in the world, and will provide a powerful tool for annotating the barley genome sequences that will become available in the near future

GenBank

GenBank® is a comprehensive database that contains publicly available nucleotide sequences for more than 300 000 organisms named at the genus level or lower, obtained primarily through submissions from individual laboratories and batch submissions from large-scale sequencing projects, including whole genome shotgun (WGS) and environmental sampling projects. Most submissions are made using the web-based BankIt or standalone Sequin programs, and accession numbers are assigned by GenBank staff upon receipt. Daily data exchange with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory Nucleotide Sequence Database in Europe and the DNA Data Bank of Japan ensures worldwide coverage. GenBank is accessible through the NCBI Entrez retrieval system, which integrates data from the major DNA and protein sequence databases along with taxonomy, genome, mapping, protein structure and domain information, and the biomedical journal literature via PubMed. BLAST provides sequence similarity searches of GenBank and other sequence databases. Complete bi-monthly releases and daily updates of the GenBank database are available by FTP. To access GenBank and its related retrieval and analysis services, begin at the NCBI homepage: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

GenBank and PubMed : how connected are they?

© 2009 Sarkar et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in BMC Research Notes 2 (2009): 101, doi:10.1186/1756-0500-2-101.GenBank(R) is a public repository of all publicly available molecular sequence data from a range of sources. In addition to relevant metadata (e.g., sequence description, source organism and taxonomy), publication information is recorded in the GenBank data file. The identification of literature associated with a given molecular sequence may be an essential first step in developing research hypotheses. Although many of the publications associated with GenBank records may not be linked into or part of complementary literature databases (e.g., PubMed), GenBank records associated with literature indexed in Medline are identifiable as they contain PubMed identifiers (PMIDs). Here we show that an analysis of 87,116,501 GenBank sequence files reveals that 42% are associated with a publication or patent. Of these, 71% are associated with PMIDs, and can therefore be linked to a citation record in the PubMed database. The remaining (29%) of publication-associated GenBank entries either do not have PMIDs or cite a publication that is not currently indexed by PubMed. We also identify the journal titles that are linked through citations in the GenBank files to the largest number of sequences. Our analysis suggests that GenBank contains molecular sequences from a range of disciplines beyond biomedicine, the initial scope of PubMed. The findings thus suggest opportunities to develop mechanisms for integrating biological knowledge beyond the biomedical field.INS and HM are funded in part by a research grant from the Ellison Medical Foundation and National Library of Medicine award R01LM009725 to INS