Computational Biology Unit, Bergen Center for Computational Science, University of Bergen, Thormøhlensgate, N-5008 Bergen, Norway. par.engstrom@bccs.uib.no
Metazoan genomes contain arrays of highly conserved noncoding elements (HCNEs) that span developmental regulatory genes and define regulatory domains. We describe Ancora http://ancora.genereg.net, a web resource that provides data and tools for exploring genomic organization of HCNEs for multiple genomes. Ancora includes a genome browser that shows HCNE locations and features novel HCNE density plots as a powerful tool to discover developmental regulatory genes and distinguish their regulatory elements and domains.