Information Sources for Genomics

Abstract

The ultimate goal of genome analysis is understanding the biology of each particular organism in both functional and evolutionary terms, which requires combining disparate data from a variety of sources. Reliable information resources, compiling data on sequenced genomes and linking it to the wealth of associated functional data, are indispensable for comparative genomics. The amount of genome-related information stored in public databases and freely available to anyone with an Internet access is enormous. It has been our experience, however, that many researchers who should benefit the most from this information are not comfortable navigating these databases, let alone assessing the reliability of the data. This chapter is an attempt to bring the genomic databases closer to their principal users, molecular biologists and biochemists.