Database Commons

a catalog of worldwide biological databases

FlyBase provides a centralized resource for the genetic and genomic data of Drosophila melanogaster. As FlyBase enters our fourth decade of service to the research community, we reflect on our unique aspects and look forward to our continued collaboration with the larger research and model organism communities. In this study, we emphasize the dedicated reports and tools we have constructed to meet the specialized needs of fly researchers but also to facilitate use by other research communities. We also highlight ways that we support the fly community, including an external resources page, help resources, and multiple avenues by which researchers can interact with FlyBase.

Brief summaries describing the function of each gene's product(s) are of great value to the research community, especially when interpreting genome-wide studies that reveal changes to hundreds of genes. However, manually writing such summaries, even for a single species, is a daunting task; for example, the Drosophila melanogaster genome contains almost 14 000 protein-coding genes. One solution is to use computational methods to generate summaries, but this often fails to capture the key functions or express them eloquently. Here, we describe how we solicited help from the research community to generate manually written summaries of D. melanogaster gene function. Based on the data within the FlyBase database, we developed a computational pipeline to identify researchers who have worked extensively on each gene. We e-mailed these researchers to ask them to draft a brief summary of the main function(s) of the gene's product, which we edited for consistency to produce a 'gene snapshot'. This approach yielded 1800 gene snapshot submissions within a 3-month period. We discuss the general utility of this strategy for other databases that capture data from the research literature. Database URL: https://flybase.org/.

Since 1992, FlyBase (flybase.org) has been an essential online resource for the Drosophila research community. Concentrating on the most extensively studied species, Drosophila melanogaster, FlyBase includes information on genes (molecular and genetic), transgenic constructs, phenotypes, genetic and physical interactions, and reagents such as stocks and cDNAs. Access to data is provided through a number of tools, reports, and bulk-data downloads. Looking to the future, FlyBase is expanding its focus to serve a broader scientific community. In this update, we describe new features, datasets, reagent collections, and data presentations that address this goal, including enhanced orthology data, Human Disease Model Reports, protein domain search and visualization, concise gene summaries, a portal for external resources, video tutorials and the FlyBase Community Advisory Group. © The Author(s) 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

Many publications describe sets of genes or gene products that share a common biology. For example, genome-wide studies and phylogenetic analyses identify genes related in sequence; high-throughput genetic and molecular screens reveal functionally related gene products; and advanced proteomic methods can determine the subunit composition of multi-protein complexes. It is useful for such gene collections to be presented as discrete lists within the appropriate Model Organism Database (MOD) so that researchers can readily access these data alongside other relevant information. To this end, FlyBase (flybase.org), the MOD for Drosophila melanogaster, has established a 'Gene Group' resource: high-quality sets of genes derived from the published literature and organized into individual report pages. To facilitate further analyses, Gene Group Reports also include convenient download and analysis options, together with links to equivalent gene groups at other databases. This new resource will enable researchers with diverse backgrounds and interests to easily view and analyse acknowledged D. melanogaster gene sets and compare them with those of other species. © The Author(s) 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

The use of Drosophila melanogaster as a model for studying human disease is well established, reflected by the steady increase in both the number and proportion of fly papers describing human disease models in recent years. In this article, we highlight recent efforts to improve the availability and accessibility of the disease model information in FlyBase (http://flybase.org), the model organism database for Drosophila. FlyBase has recently introduced Human Disease Model Reports, each of which presents background information on a specific disease, a tabulation of related disease subtypes, and summaries of experimental data and results using fruit flies. Integrated presentations of relevant data and reagents described in other sections of FlyBase are incorporated into these reports, which are specifically designed to be accessible to non-fly researchers in order to promote collaboration across model organism communities working in translational science. Another key component of disease model information in FlyBase is that data are collected in a consistent format --- using the evolving Disease Ontology (an open-source standardized ontology for human-disease-associated biomedical data) - to allow robust and intuitive searches. To facilitate this, FlyBase has developed a dedicated tool for querying and navigating relevant data, which include mutations that model a disease and any associated interacting modifiers. In this article, we describe how data related to fly models of human disease are presented in individual Gene Reports and in the Human Disease Model Reports. Finally, we discuss search strategies and new query tools that are available to access the disease model data in FlyBase.

Release 6, the latest reference genome assembly of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, was released by the Berkeley Drosophila Genome Project in 2014; it replaces their previous Release 5 genome assembly, which had been the reference genome assembly for over 7 years. With the enormous amount of information now attached to the D. melanogaster genome in public repositories and individual laboratories, the replacement of the previous assembly by the new one is a major event requiring careful migration of annotations and genome-anchored data to the new, improved assembly. In this report, we describe the attributes of the new Release 6 reference genome assembly, the migration of FlyBase genome annotations to this new assembly, how genome features on this new assembly can be viewed in FlyBase (http://flybase.org) and how users can convert coordinates for their own data to the corresponding Release 6 coordinates. © The Author(s) 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research.

FlyBase (http://flybase.org) is the leading website and database of Drosophila genes and genomes. Whether you are using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster as an experimental system or wish to understand Drosophila biological knowledge in relation to human disease or to other model systems, FlyBase can help you successfully find the information you are looking for. Here, we demonstrate some of our more advanced searching systems and highlight some of our new tools for searching the wealth of data on FlyBase. The first section explores gene function in FlyBase, using our TermLink tool to search with Controlled Vocabulary terms and our new RNA-Seq Search tool to search gene expression. The second section of this article describes a few ways to search genomic data in FlyBase, using our BLAST server and the new implementation of GBrowse 2, as well as our new FeatureMapper tool. Finally, we move on to discuss our most powerful search tool, QueryBuilder, before describing pre-computed cuts of the data and how to query the database programmatically.

An accurate, comprehensive, non-redundant and up-to-date bibliography is a crucial component of any Model Organism Database (MOD). Principally, the bibliography provides a set of references that are specific to the field served by the MOD. Moreover, it serves as a backbone to which all curated biological data can be attributed. Here, we describe the organization and main features of the bibliography in FlyBase (flybase.org), the MOD for Drosophila melanogaster. We present an overview of the current content of the bibliography, the pipeline for identifying and adding new references, the presentation of data within Reference Reports and effective methods for searching and retrieving bibliographic data. We highlight recent improvements in these areas and describe the advantages of using the FlyBase bibliography over alternative literature resources. Although this article is focused on bibliographic data, many of the features and tools described are applicable to browsing and querying other datasets in FlyBase.

FlyBase (http://flybase.org) is the leading database and web portal for genetic and genomic information on the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster and related fly species. Whether you use the fruit fly as an experimental system or want to apply Drosophila biological knowledge to another field of study, FlyBase can help you successfully navigate the wealth of available Drosophila data. Here, we review the FlyBase web site with novice and less-experienced users of FlyBase in mind and point out recent developments stemming from the availability of genome-wide data from the modENCODE project. The first section of this paper explains the organization of the web site and describes the report pages available on FlyBase, focusing on the most popular, the Gene Report. The next section introduces some of the search tools available on FlyBase, in particular, our heavily used and recently redesigned search tool QuickSearch, found on the FlyBase homepage. The final section concerns genomic data, including recent modENCODE (http://www.modencode.org) data, available through our Genome Browser, GBrowse.

FlyBase is the model organism database for Drosophila genetic and genomic information. Over the last 20 years, FlyBase has had to adapt and change to keep abreast of advances in biology and database design. We are continually looking for ways to improve curation efficiency and efficacy. Genetic literature curation focuses on the extraction of genetic entities (e.g. genes, mutant alleles, transgenic constructs) and their associated phenotypes and Gene Ontology terms from the published literature. Over 2000 Drosophila research articles are now published every year. These articles are becoming ever more data-rich and there is a growing need for text mining to shoulder some of the burden of paper triage and data extraction. In this article, we describe our curation workflow, along with some of the problems and bottlenecks therein, and highlight the opportunities for text mining. We do so in the hope of encouraging the BioCreative community to help us to develop effective methods to mine this torrent of information. DATABASE URL: http://flybase.org

FlyBase (http://flybase.org) is a database of Drosophila genetic and genomic information. Gene Ontology (GO) terms are used to describe three attributes of wild-type gene products: their molecular function, the biological processes in which they play a role, and their subcellular location. This article describes recent changes to the FlyBase GO annotation strategy that are improving the quality of the GO annotation data. Many of these changes stem from our participation in the GO Reference Genome Annotation Project--a multi-database collaboration producing comprehensive GO annotation sets for 12 diverse species.

FlyBase (http://flybase.org) is the primary resource for molecular and genetic information on the Drosophilidae. The database serves researchers of diverse backgrounds and interests, and offers several different query tools to provide efficient access to the data available and facilitate the discovery of significant relationships within the database. Recently, FlyBase has developed Interactions Browser and enhanced GBrowse, which are graphical query tools, and made improvements to the search tools QuickSearch and QueryBuilder. Furthermore, these search tools have been integrated with Batch Download and new analysis tools through a more flexible search results list, providing powerful ways of exploring the data in FlyBase.

FlyBase ( http://flybase.org ) is the primary database of integrated genetic and genomic data about the Drosophilidae, of which Drosophila melanogaster is the most extensively studied species. Information in FlyBase originates from a variety of sources ranging from large-scale genome projects to the primary research literature. Data-types include sequence-level gene models, molecular classification of gene product functions, mutant phenotypes, mutant lesions and chromosome aberrations, gene expression patterns, transgene insertions, and anatomical images. Query tools allow interrogation of FlyBase through DNA or protein sequence, by gene or mutant name, or through terms from the several ontologies used to capture functional, phenotypic, and anatomical data. Links between FlyBase and external databases provide extensive opportunity for extending exploration into other model organism databases and resources of biological and molecular information. This review will introduce the FlyBase web server and query tools.

FlyBase (http://flybase.org/) is the primary database of genetic and genomic data for the insect family Drosophilidae. Historically, Drosophila melanogaster has been the most extensively studied species in this family, but recent determination of the genomic sequences of an additional 11 Drosophila species opens up new avenues of research for other Drosophila species. This extensive sequence resource, encompassing species with well-defined phylogenetic relationships, provides a model system for comparative genomic analyses. FlyBase has developed tools to facilitate access to and navigation through this invaluable new data collection.

FlyBase (http://flybase.org/) is a database of genetic and genomic data on the model organism Drosophila melanogaster and the entire insect family Drosophilidae. The FlyBase Consortium curates, annotates, integrates and maintains a wide variety of data within this domain. Access to the data is provided through graphical and textual user interfaces tailored to particular types of data. FlyBase data types include maps at the cytological, genetic and sequence levels, genes and alleles including their products, functions, expression patterns, mutant phenotypes and genetic interactions as well as aberrant chromosomes, annotated genomes, genetic stock collections, transposons, transgene constructs and insertions, anatomy and images, bibliographic data, and community contact information.

FlyBase (http://flybase.org) is the primary repository of genetic and molecular data of the insect family Drosophilidae. For the most extensively studied species, Drosophila melanogaster, a wide range of data are presented in integrated formats. Data types include mutant phenotypes, molecular characterization of mutant alleles and aberrations, cytological maps, wild-type expression patterns, anatomical images, transgenic constructs and insertions, sequence-level gene models and molecular classification of gene product functions. There is a growing body of data for other Drosophila species; this is expected to increase dramatically over the next year, with the completion of draft-quality genomic sequences of an additional 11 Drosophila species.

FlyBase (http://flybase.bio.indiana.edu/) provides an integrated view of the fundamental genomic and genetic data on the major genetic model Drosophila melanogaster and related species. FlyBase has primary responsibility for the continual reannotation of the D. melanogaster genome. The ultimate goal of the reannotation effort is to decorate the euchromatic sequence of the genome with as much biological information as is available from the community and from the major genome project centers. A complete revision of the annotations of the now-finished euchromatic genomic sequence has been completed. There are many points of entry to the genome within FlyBase, most notably through maps, gene products and ontologies, structured phenotypic and gene expression data, and anatomy.

FlyBase (http://flybase.bio.indiana.edu/) provides an integrated view of the fundamental genomic and genetic data on the major genetic model Drosophila melanogaster and related species. Following on the success of the Drosophila genome project, FlyBase has primary responsibility for the continual reannotation of the D.melanogaster genome. The ultimate goal of the reannotation effort is to decorate the euchromatic sequence of the genome with as much biological information as is available from the community and from the major genome project centers. The current cycle of reannotation focuses on establishing a comprehensive data set of gene models (i.e. transcription units and CDSs). There are many points of entry to the genome within FlyBase, most notably through maps, gene ontologies, structured phenotypic and gene expression data, and anatomy.

The FlyBase Drosophila genetics database and the public interfaces of the Berkeley Drosophila Genome Project (BDGP) and European Drosophila Genome Project (EDGP) are in the process of integrating. At present, the data of these projects are available from independent, but hyperlinked, WWW sites (FlyBase URL, http://flybase. bio.indiana.edu/; BDGP URL, http://fruitfly.berkeley.edu/; EDGP URL, http://edgp.ebi.ac.uk/ ). Because of the considerable overlap of data classes between the contributions of the Drosophila genome projects and the Drosophila community, the new and enlarged FlyBase consortium views the implementation of a single integrated Drosophila genomics/genetics server as essential to the scientific community. This integration will occur in a stepwise fashion over the next 1-2 years. In this report, the salient features of the current databases and how to interrogate and navigate the extensive data sets are discussed.

FlyBase (http://flybase.bio.indiana.edu/) is a comprehensive database of genetic and molecular data concerning Drosophila . FlyBase is maintained as a relational database (in Sybase) and is made available as html documents and flat files. The scope of FlyBase includes: genes, alleles (with phenotypes), aberrations, transposons, pointers to sequence data, gene products, maps, clones, stock lists, Drosophila workers and bibliographic references.

FlyBase is a database of genetic and molecular data concerning Drosophila. FlyBase is maintained as a relational database (in Sybase) and is made available as html documents and flat files. The scope of FlyBase includes: genes, alleles (and phenotypes), aberrations, transposons, pointers to sequence data, clones, stock lists, Drosophila workers and bibliographic references. The Encyclopedia of Drosophila is a joint effort between FlyBase and the Berkeley Drosophila Genome Project which integrates FlyBase data with those from the BDGP.

FlyBase is a database of genetic and molecular data concerning Drosophila. FlyBase is maintained as a relational database (in Sybase). The scope of FlyBase includes: genes, alleles (and phenotypes), aberrations, pointers to sequence data, clones, stock lists, Drosophila workers and bibliographic references. FlyBase is also available on CD-ROM for Macintosh systems (Encyclopaedia of Drosophila).

FlyBase is a database of genetic and molecular data concerning Drosophila. FlyBase is maintained as a relational database (in Sybase) and is available from the ftp.bio.indiana.edu Gopher server. The scope of FlyBase includes: genes, alleles, aberrations, pointers to sequence data, stock lists, Drosophila workers and bibliographic references.