Title

Authors

Affiliation

Institute for Biotechnology and Bioengineering (Laboratório Associado), Centre for Molecular and Structural Biomedicine, University of Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal.

Email

mfutschik@ualg.pt; *Corresponding author

Article Type

Database

Date

Received June 08, 2012; Accepted June 09, 2012; Published July 06, 2012

Synechocystis sp. PCC6803 is one of the best studied cyanobacteria and an important model organism for our understanding of photosynthesis. The early availability of its complete genome sequence initiated numerous transcriptome studies, which have generated a wealth of expression data. Analysis of the accumulated data can be a powerful tool to study transcription in a comprehensive manner and to reveal underlying regulatory mechanisms, as well as to annotate genes whose functions are yet unknown. However, use of divergent microarray platforms, as well as distributed data storage make meta-analyses of Synechocystis expression data highly challenging, especially for researchers with limited bioinformatic expertise and resources. To facilitate utilisation of the accumulated expression data for a wider research community, we have developed CyanoEXpress, a web database for interactive exploration and visualisation of transcriptional response patterns in Synechocystis. CyanoEXpress currently comprises expression data for 3073 genes and 178 environmental and genetic perturbations obtained in 31 independent studies. At present, CyanoEXpress constitutes the most comprehensive collection of expression data available for Synechocystis and can be freely accessed.

Availability

http://cyanoexpress.sysbiolab.eu

Keywords

Cyanobacteria, Synechocystis sp. PCC6803, Gene expression, Meta-analysis, Cluster, Microarray, Transcriptome, Database

Citation

Hernandez-Prieto & Futschik, Bioinformation 8(13): 634-638 (2012)
 

Edited by

P Kangueane

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.