Xenbase, the Xenopus model organism database; new virtualized system, data types and genomes

Abstract

Xenbase (http://www.xenbase.org), the Xenopus frog model organism database, integrates a wide variety of data from this biomedical model genus. Two closely related species are represented: the allotetraploid Xenopus laevis that is widely used for microinjection and tissue explant-based protocols, and the diploid Xenopus tropicalis which is used for genetics and gene targeting. The two species are extremely similar and protocols, reagents and results from each species are often interchangeable. Xenbase imports, indexes, curates and manages data from both species; all of which are mapped via unique IDs and can be queried in either a species-specific or species agnostic manner. All our services have now migrated to a private cloud to achieve better performance and reliability. We have added new content, including providing full support for morpholino reagents, used to inhibit mRNA translation or splicing and binding to regulatory microRNAs. New genomes assembled by the JGI for both species and are displayed in Gbrowse and are also available for searches using BLAST. Researchers can easily navigate from genome content to gene page reports, literature, experimental reagents and many other features using hyperlinks. Xenbase has also greatly expanded image content for figures published in papers describing Xenopus research via PubMedCentral.

Figure 1.

The new Xenbase landing page. The large graphic depicting the Xenopus genomes is dynamic, and displays around 10 recent news stories or papers at any one time. Different Xenbase content is organized into tiles, making up the majority of the page. Across the top of the page are login tools, a search tool and a uniform navigation menu found on every Xenbase page. Down the right-hand side are links to many internal and external resources.

Figure 2.

The new morpholino support interface. We store data on over 1000 morpholino reagents, gathered from large-scale screens and the Xenopus literature. (A) Each morpholino sequence is aligned to the genome via BLAST and the results for both on-target and potential off-target matches displayed. Various other data, such as publications, utilizing the reagent are also illustrated. (B) Morpholino sequences are also available as a track in our GBrowse implementation. When a user clicks on a morpholino in the browser details on the alignment are displayed in a pop-up window.