Yeast Genetics and Molecular Biology 1996
Madison, Wisconsin
August 1996


Name: Cherry, J. M
Mailing Address: Stanford University Medical Center, Rm M313, Stanford, CA 94305-5120
Email Address: cherry@genome.stanford.edu
Phone and Fax numbers: 415-723-7541, 415-723-7016

New Software Developments for Genomic Databases.

J.M. Cherry, G. Juvik, F. Petel, and S. Weng. Department of Genetics, Stanford University, School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305-5120

The primary goals of the Saccharomyces Genome Database project are to provide basic information about yeast genes and their products, analysis tools to help locate information, and cross-references to the growing number of information resources on the World Wide Web. As the demand for information and services increase, the SGD project must continually modernize its database and software. We have begun development of systems to provide automatic updates to the database in collaboration with the Arabidopsis thaliana Database and the Berkeley Drosophila Genome Project. The initial WWW forms of these systems are currently being used for the literature and sequence information. Automatic generation of cross-reference updates are currently in production with YPD and GenBank. New software is being developed that will allow faster access to complex information and interactive graphical displays. A new database is being constructed with the commercial object-relational database, Illustra (now Informix). This new database will provide faster searching for a variety of information, as well as complex text searches and analysis. As with the current SGD Web displays textual information will be provided. However, new biologically intuitive graphical presentations are being developed using the Java language. In particular, users will be able to scroll, zoom into and select regions of special interest, within a DNA sequence or physical map, to obtain a more detailed description.