unfinished sequence data are often made available on the web site of the sequencing center before the sequence data are finished and deposited to a database
Archival
repository of information
redundant; might have many sequence records for the same gene, each from a different lab
submitters maintain editorial control over their records
Curated
non-redundant; one record for each gene, or each splice variant
each record is intended to present an
encapsulation of the current understanding of a gene or protein,
similar to a review article
records contain value-added information that have been added by an expert(s)
Note:The databases listed above are just examples. Various printed
and WWW resources provide more comprehensive lists and descriptions, such as:
Nucleic Acids Research. Database Issue. 2000. Oxford:
IRL Press. Vol. 28, No. 1 (January 1).
This is an annual issue that comes out the
first of each year. A list
of the articles included in it can be viewed through the PubMed system.
(Tip: view the list of articles from bottom to top, to see the articles in the order in which they appear in the journal.)
The annual database issue includes articles on comprehensive databases
such as GenBank, EMBL, DDBJ, and Swiss-Prot; species specific resources
such as The Mouse Genome Database (MGD) and Saccharomyces Genome Database
(SGD); and a wide range of specialized databases such as REBASE (restriction enzymes and methylases) and the Histone Sequence Database.
See also the WWW Sites section of manual for links to additional directories of molecular biology databases and software.
