JuncDB: An exon-exon junction database

Abstract

Intron positions upon the mRNA transcript are sometimes remarkably conserved even across distantly related eukaryotic species. This has made the comparison of intron-exon architectures across orthol-ogous transcripts a very useful tool for studying various evolutionary processes. Moreover, the wide range of functions associated with introns may confer biological meaning to evolutionary changes in gene architectures. Yet, there is currently no database that offers such comparative information. Here, we present JuncDB (http://juncdb.carmelab. huji.ac.il/), an exon-exon junction database dedicated to the comparison of architectures between orthologous transcripts. It covers nearly 40 000 sets of orthologous transcripts spanning 88 eukaryotic species. JuncDB offers a user-friendly interface, access to detailed information, instructive graphical displays of the comparative data and easy ways to download data to a local computer. In addition, JuncDB allows the analysis to be carried out either on specific genes, or at a genome-wide level for any selected group of species.