A comparative gene expression database for invertebrates

In order to offer a homogenous way of storing and handling gene expression patterns from a variety of organisms, we have developed the first web-based comparative gene expression database for invertebrates that allows species-specific as well as cross-species gene expression comparisons. The database can be queried by gene name, developmental stage and/or expression domains.This database provides a unique tool for the Evo-Devo research community that allows the retrieval, analysis and comparison of gene expression patterns within or among species. In addition, this database enables a quick identification of putative syn-expression groups that can be used to initiate, among other things, gene regulatory network (GRN) projects.Laboratories which use well-established developmental biology model systems have recognized the importance of species-specific databases and developed extensive tools for their community, for example Zfin (zebrafish, http://zfin.org webcite) [1], MEPD (medaka, http://ani.embl.de:8080/mepd/ webcite) [2], FlyBase (Drosophila, http://flybase.org webcite[3], BDGB (Drosophila, http://www.fruitfly.org/DGC/index.html webcite) [4], WormBase (C. elegans, http://wormbase.org webcite), Aniseed (Ciona, http://aniseed-ibdm.univ-mrs.fr/ webcite), Gene Expression Database (GXD) at MGI (mouse, http://www.informatics.jax.org/ webcite) [5-7]) EMAGE (mouse, http://www.emouseatlas.org webcite) ([8-10]), XENBASE (Xenopus, http://www.xenbase.org webcite) ([11-13]) and a comparative database 4DXpress for major animal model species http://ani.embl.de/4DXpress webcite[14]. Recently, efforts have also been made to create databases for emerging model systems such as cnidarians (StellaBase (http://www.stellabase.org webcite) [15] and Platynereis PEPD (http://ani.embl.de:8080/pepd/ webcite). These databases are mainly used to combine all available resources (genome, expressed sequence tag's (EST), transgenes, publications, expression data, and so on) and the large amount of