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An overview of Ensembl.
Ewan Birney1, T Daniel Andrews, Paul Bevan
1EMBL European Bioinformatics Institute, The Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton, Cambridge, CB10 1SA, UK. birney@ebi.ac.uk
Genome Research
|April 14, 2004
Summary
Ensembl organizes genomic data, providing genome annotation, synteny, and orthology information. This bioinformatics resource integrates diverse biological data for research, freely available as a website, flat files, and open-source software.
Area of Science:
- Bioinformatics
- Genomics
- Comparative Genomics
Background:
- Biological information is increasingly organized around large genome sequences.
- A comprehensive source for genome annotation and inter-species relationships is needed.
Purpose of the Study:
- To present Ensembl as a bioinformatics project for organizing biological information around genome sequences.
- To highlight Ensembl's role in providing genome annotation, synteny, and orthology relationships.
- To describe Ensembl as a framework for integrating diverse biological data mapped to genomic features.
Main Methods:
- Ensembl provides an interactive website, flat files, and an open-source software system.
- Data integration is achieved by mapping biological data onto genomic features.
- Ensembl facilitates the study of synteny and orthology relationships between genomes.
Main Results:
- Ensembl offers stable automatic annotation for individual genomes.
- It establishes synteny and orthology relationships between different species.
- Ensembl serves as a framework for integrating various biological datasets.
Conclusions:
- Ensembl is a comprehensive, freely available resource for genomic data organization and integration.
- The project aims to expand integration to more model organisms and deepen cross-species analysis.
- Ensembl seeks to improve the classification of elusive functional genomic elements.