Vertebrate MitBASE: a specialised database on vertebrate mitochondrial DNAsequences

Vertebrate MitBASE is a specialized database where all the vertebrate mitoc hondrial DNA entries from primary databases are collected, revised and inte grated with new information emerging from the literature. Variant sequences are also analyzed, aligned and linked to reference sequences. Data related to the same species and fragment can be viewed over the WWW. The database has a flexible interface and a retrieval system to help non-expert users an d contains information not currently available in the primary databases. Ve rtebrate MitBASE is now available through the MitBASE home page at URL:http ://www.ebi.ac.uk/htbin/Mitbase/ mitbase.pl. This work is part of a larger p roject, MitBASE which is a network of databases covering the full panorama of knowledge on mitochondrial DNA from protists to human sequences.