[CDHC] Announcing New Genomic Databases available to Coral Community

[Cheryl Woodley]

Dear CDHC Members,
I was asked to announce the availability of two EST database resources 
to the members of this list on behalf for Drs. Medina and Schwarz Labs.  
This is a great asset to our community.  I hope you will all visit these 
sites and take advantage of this valuable resource.
All the best,
Cheryl

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

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

AiptasiaBase - http://aiptasia.cs.vassar.edu/AiptasiaBase/index.php
----

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

Cheryl Woodley, Ph.D.
Coral Health and Disease Program

DOC/NOAA/NOS/NCCOS
Center for Coastal Environmental Health and Biomolecular Research
Hollings Marine Laboratory
331 Fort Johnson Rd
Charleston, SC 29412
843.762.8862 Phone
843.762.8737 Fax
cheryl.woodley at noaa.gov