CONSTRUCTION OF HSC-2DPAGE - A 2-DIMENSIONAL GEL-ELECTROPHORESIS DATABASE OF HEART PROTEINS

The dissemination of information relating to the characterisation of p roteins from two-dimensional electrophoresis (2-DE) gel databases is e ssential for their effective utilisation in the study of protein expre ssion in cell biology. Since the inception of the World Wide Web and t he pioneering development of SWISS-2DPAGE as a tool for retrieving inf ormation on proteins separated by 2-DE, the Internet has become the me thod of choice for disseminating and accessing information on 2-DE pro tein databases. At Harefield we have established HSC-2DPAGE which is a n advanced interface for accessing protein databases relating to heart disease. The Web site currently includes databases of proteins from h uman, dog and rat ventricular tissue and a human endothelial cell line . The databases are searchable individually or as a whole by remote ke yword searches. Each database is represented by both synthetic (comput er generated) and real (scanned gel) clickable images upon which chara cterised protein spots are highlighted by hyperlinked symbols. The dat abase conforms to all the rules proposed for federated 2-DE protein da tabases and individual protein entries are linked to other protein dat abases such as SWISS-PROT by active cross-references. This paper descr ibes the construction of HSC-2DPAGE, its maintenance, and access via t he Internet.