See citing WormBase
1) At the back end, WormBase data are deposited in an object-oriented database, ACeDB, which is the "master" database containing all data. ACeDB can be accessed both remotely and locally, through both commandline and web server.
2) Some data (especially sequence data including genomics sequence, ESTs, OSTs, SNPs, genes, RNAs etc) are extracted from ACeDB and are deposited in a "slave" MySQL database, to support some key features like gbrowse (see below);
3) At the front end sits the apache server with mod_perl. Wormbase software package containing configuration files and a series of CGI scripts runs on the apache server. The CGI scripts provide users with a number of ways to browse and search WormBase.
4) Some key features of the WormBase package: i. gbrowse: developed by Lincoln Stein for the GMOD consortium and is widely used for other model organisms. It allows users to browse through the whole genome for feature tracks corresponding to specific genome regions. gbrowse is highly configuarable and support multiple foreign languages. ii. synteny browser: recently developed by Lincoln Stein for the GMOD consortium as well. It allows comparative view of two genomes side by side, focusing on the syntenic regions.
There is no simple answer to that. WormBase has a team of about 30 people who generate and curate data in many different ways.
The genome sequence of C. elegans was determined at two of the four WormBase groups, and so a lot of data pertaining to gene predictions and other features annotated on to the genome are created and maintained by those groups. Contact
The group at Caltech do a lot of literature curation and extract all sorts of information from the published literature (from hand-curated descriptions of gene function to details of individual RNAi experiments). Contact
A lot of data also comes from 3rd party collaborators who submit bulk data sets direct to WormBase (e.g. Orfeome data, 'knockout' deletion alleles).
In contrast we also get directly submitted data from users at a very small level, e.g. individual allele submissions.
Finally, we also generate data de novo as part of the database build procedure, e.g. calculating molecular weights of proteins.
Unfortunately, No;
WormBase is staffed by Ph.D.s rather than physicians, and would not lawfully be able to provide medical advice over the Internet even if it were a M.D.-staffed database oriented towards pathogenic worms.
Please consult your local physician for all medical advice.