[Coral-List] EST databases for symbiotic cnidarians

[Shini Sunagawa]

We would like to announce "SymBioSys", and "AiptasiaBase", two 
comprehensive EST databases providing transcriptomic resources for 
symbiotic cnidarians.

URLs
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SymBioSys - http://sequoia.ucmerced.edu/SymBioSys/index.php

AiptasiaBase - http://aiptasia.cs.vassar.edu/AiptasiaBase/index.php
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Initially, the databases started as an undergraduate student-project 
with the aim to organize and annotate internally available EST sequences 
for the sea anemone Aiptasia pallida (AiptasiaBase) as well as the 
Caribbean corals Montastraea faveolata and Acropora palmata (SymBioSys). 
The product is based on an open-access software pipeline (EST2uni - 
Forment et al. 2008).

AiptasiaBase is now hosted at Vassar College, and future development is 
aiming at making it part of a tool-rich, community-based Wiki project. 
SymBiosSys is hosted at the University of California Merced and the 
positive feedback we have received spurred us on to include more 
sequences from additional species (corals and Symbiodinium). Both 
databases contain assembled and annotated sequences that are highly 
queryable, blastable, and readily downloadable. For more features (such 
as primer design in 3 mouse clicks), just follow the links provided above.

Enjoy,
Monica Medina, Jodi Schwarz and Shini Sunagawa