Projects

Micro-Mar : a database for dynamic representation of marine microbial biodiversity

Institute : University of Miguel Hernández, Alicante, SPAIN
Programming Languages : PHP, Java, HTML, Javascript, JPGraph library
Operating System : Linux Fedora Core 3, MS Windows 2K/XP
Software Tools : CVS, Macromedia Flash
Application Server: Apache
Database: MySQL
Bioinformatics Tools : BLAST, CLUSTALW, PHYLIP
Team Size : 4
Duration : Apr. 2004 - Apr. 2005

Abstract

Background

The cataloging of marine prokaryotic DNA sequences is a fundamental aspect for bioprospecting and also for the development of evolutionary and speciation models. However, large amount of DNA sequences used to quantify prokaryotic biodiversity requires proper tools for storing, managing and analyzing these data for research purposes.

Description

The Micro-Mar database has been created to collect DNA diversity information from marine prokaryotes for biogeographical and ecological analyses. The database currently includes 11874 sequences corresponding to high resolution taxonomic genes (16S rRNA, ITS and 23S rRNA) and many other genes including CDS of marine prokaryotes together with available biogeographical and ecological information.

Conclusion

The database aims to integrate molecular data and taxonomic affiliation with biogeographical and ecological features that will allow to have a dynamic representation of the marine microbial diversity embedded in a user friendly web interface. It is available online at http://egg.umh.es/micromar/.

Citation

Pushker R., D'Auria G., Alba-Casado J.C. and Rodríguez-Valera F. (2005) Micro-Mar: a database for dynamic representation of marine microbial biodiversity. BMC Bioinformatics, 6:222.

Copyrights

© 2005 Pushker et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2105/6/222