Genomes & Databases on the Internet

The authors of this book take a practical look at what the web has to offer in the ever-expanding field of molecular biology. Aimed at the researcher who is aware of some of the resources available but is too busy to search the Internet for more. This concise yet informative book is an invaluable resource packed with practical information on the use, purpose and future protential of all the major bioscience internet resources. These range from databases, analytical tools, metabolic pathways, and literature searches to molecular biology portals. The book opens with a chapter that explains the basics of how the web operates and is followed by chapters that fall into four sections. Part I, Molecule Databases covers all databases pertaining to DNA, RNA, and proteins. These include, GenBank, EMBL, DDBJ, PIR-PSD, SWISS-PROT, secondary nucleotide sequence databases, protein classification databases, structure databases, and databases focused on the funtion of genes. Part II, Genomic Research takes a close look at the databases that present the results of the genome sequencing projects. Included are the human genome databases, and the databases dedicated to the genomes of plants, fungi, vertebrates, invertebrates, insects, organelles, bacteria, and viruses. The genome centres that handle a multitude of genomes and provide comparative genome analyses are also reviewed. Part III, Online Analysis Tools explains the various software applications that can be used in genomic and proteomic research, for example those used for nucleotide sequence alignments, phylogenetic tree development, modelling of three-dimensional protein structures, etc. Part IV, General Resources contains a brief chapter that examines web resources beyond molecules. The "databases" in this chapter contain web links, literature references, and lab supplies.

Essential reading for all bioscientists, molecular biologists, microbiologists, biotechnologists, and genome scientists.