[
International C. elegans Meeting,
1991]
As announced in the last Gazette, we are writing a computer database system, named acedb, to handle the genetic and molecular information produced by the genome project and the whole community. This is a mouse and windows based program written for Unix workstations. It already runs under the windowing systems Xll and Sunview, and will be available to those interested at the time of the meeting. With some effort, advanced Macs or PC's can be used as X terminals if connected by ethernet to a Unix system running acedb. It is even possible, though a little slow, to connect via internet to a computer running at another site. We are currently looking into a stand alone Mac version, but no promises yet. The basic design is to store data in objects organized in classes. Current classes are: Chromosome, Clone, Author, Laboratory, Gene_Class, Gene, Allele, Rearrangement, Strain, Journal, Paper, Mutagen, 2_Point_Data, 3_Point)data, DNA, Protein, Keyword. So each gene is an object, as is each author, and each strain. You can display information about an object by selecting it from a list created from the main menu, or by using a more complex (and powerful) combinatorial query procedure. Each displayed object pops up in its own window, and several can be seen at once. As well as textual objects and sequences you can display genetic and physical maps. It is possible to move easily between related objects, including between maps of different types. Any displayed information can be laserprinted, and the complete information about any list of objects can be dumped to a plain ascii file for editing or transferring to another program. The second important aspect of acedb is the integration of processing tools. Indeed, a central aim of the project is to allow us to build, maintain and use links between the genetic and physical maps, and between them and the sequence as it becomes available. We are currently working on ways to add genetic map and sequence calculations. At present we have gathered data from the CGC, the mapping project and EMBL. However, we are hoping to add as much related information as possible from the community. Our whole design is very flexible, and we are not limited to any fixed format or set of object features. We are collaborating with Bruce Schatz on a scheme for gathering and redistributing this information based on his Worm Community global communication system. Finally, we encourage suggestions from everyone on useful additions and improvements.