Genome database integration

Abstract

This paper presents a solution to many of the problems in Genome Database Integration including an integrated interface for accessing all genome databases simultaneously and the problem of a common interchange data format. The solution is the addition of a middle or mediation layer of a three layer approach. The solution provides a simple step by step approach to connect other existing genome databases quickly and efficiently. The internal data format used is a commonly used bioinformatics format called BSML, a subset of the XML standard. The architecture also allows easy addition and deletion of functionality. Finally an implementation of this solution is presented with the required support functionality to validate the proposed integration method. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2004.