CSC8312 -- Bioinformatics Theory and Applications

Searching a Database

First, we are going to try searching for a database.

Find a URL for EMBL. Google should be able to help here. It should look like this

What does EMBL stand for? What kind of information is stored in the EMBL database? What other databases with this information exist?

Now that you have found the database in question, we are going to try searching it. Fortunately, we can get access to EMBL from the front-page. In this case, we want to make a database query.

Click on the database queries link. This takes you to a number of options. In this case, we want to query for individual records rather than look over the entire database. Click on the SRS link.

SRS is a general purpose tool for searching over bioinformatics databases. In this case, lets just search for PAX6.

Put "PAX6" into the top search box. It should look like this. You will get back lots of hits. The Human Gene has an accession number of BC011953. Lets start with the mouse. It has an accession of AF457141. Click on the left most link. You should get a record which looks like this.