The ARKdb: genome databases for farmed and other animals

The ARKdb genome databases provide comprehensive public repositories for ge nome mapping data from farmed species and other animals (http://www.thearkd b.org) providing a resource similar in function to that offered by GDB or M GD for human or mouse genome mapping data, respectively. Because we have at tempted to build a generic mapping database, the system has wide utility, p articularly for those species for which development of a specific resource would be prohibitive. The ARKdb genome database model has been implemented for 10 species to date. These are pig, chicken, sheep, cattle, horse, deer, tilapia, cat, turkey and salmon. Access to the ARKdb databases is effected via the World Wide Web using the ARKdb browser and Anubis map viewer. The information stored includes details of loci, maps, experimental methods and the source references. Links to other information sources such as PubMed a nd EMBL/GenBank are provided. Responsibility for data entry and curation is shared amongst scientists active in genome research in the species of inte rest. Mirror sites in the United States are maintained in addition to the c entral genome server at Roslin.