Design of knowledge bases for plant gene regulatory networks

Abstract

Developing a knowledge base that contains all the information necessary for the researcher studying gene regulation in a particular organism can be accomplished in four stages. This begins with defining the data scope. We describe here the necessary information and resources, and outline the methods for obtaining data. The second stage consists of designing the schema, which involves defining the entire arrangement of the database in a systematic plan. The third stage is the implementation, defined by actualization of the database by using software according to a predefined schema. The final stage is development, where the database is made available to users in a web-accessible system. The result is a knowledgebase that integrates all the information pertaining to gene regulation, and which is easily expandable and transferable.