SPiD: A subtilis protein interaction database

Abstract

Motivation: Protein-protein interactions are a potential source of valuable clues in determining the functional role of as yet uncharacterized gene products in metabolic pathways. Graph-like structures emerging from the accumulation of interaction data make it difficult to maintain a consistent and global overview by hand. Bioinformatics tools are needed to perform this graph visualization while maintaining a link to the experimental data. Results: 'SPiD' is an online database for exploring networks of interacting proteins in Bacillus subtilis characterized by the two-hybrid system. Graphical displays of interaction networks are created dynamically as users interactively navigate through these networks. Third party applications can interface the database through a Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) tier.