WormBase release WS248

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The newly released WS248 version of WormBase includes several updates based on curation topics as well as synchronisation with other databases.
In addition the use of Gene Ontology has been extended.

microRNA update for Brugia malayi

The newest data on Brugia malayi microRNAs from miRBase Release 21 has been integrated,
which includes pre-miRNA and mature transcripts as well as the consolidation of
nomenclature used by WormBase and miRBase.

Heavy Metal Topic curation

This release focuses on the curation of data related to Heavy Metal response in nematodes.
Supporting data and publications have been added to WormBase, in addition to review of
gene models for genes involved in this pathway.

New automated descriptions

Gene descriptions generated automatically using a new in-house pipeline were rolled out
for C. elegans in the WS247 release. This release extends that to all other core
species (B. malayi, O. volvulus, C. briggsae, C. brenneri, C. remanei, C. japonica)

New Gene Ontology Annotation Class

Starting with the WS248 release, Gene Ontology annotations will be represented in a new class,
GO_annotation. The GO_annotation class modelsGO annotations as distinct objects in the
database and allows for richer representation of GO data. For example, the GO_annotation
class contains information on interacting genes for annotations that use the IGI (Inferred
from Genetic Interaction) and IPI (Inferred from Physical Interaction) evidence codes, and
also contains annotation extensions that provide additional context for GO terms, such as
substrates for enzymatic activities. The GO_annotation class also includes annotations from
external groups such as UniProt and the Gene Ontology Consortium’s phylogenetic annotation
efforts using PAINT.

WormBase Workshop at International Worm Meeting 2015

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Thursday, June 25 – 1pm -2:30pm
Saturday, June 27 – 1pm – 2:30pm

For the 2015 International C. elegans meeting, WormBase will present two identical workshops to cover some of WormBase’s newer tools and data as well as ways in which the nematode research community may contribute data and annotations to the database. We will cover basics of data mining with WormMine (the WormBase instance of Intermine), introduce our instantiation of the JBrowse genome browser, and demo the new ParaSite website which hosts genome sequences for parasitic nematode species. We will discuss WormBase sequence data available in complementary resources such as Ensembl Genomes and the UCSC Assembly Hub for C. elegans. We will also provide a number of options for users to submit their own data using sequence variation data, gene concise descriptions and Gene Ontology annotations as examples.

2nd Bridging the Divide Workshop to be held at the 2015 C. elegans Meeting

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Parasitic Nematodes: Announcing the 2nd “Bridging the Divide” workshop to be held at the 2015 International C. elegans Meeting (June 24th, 2:00pm – 5:00pm, Northwest Auditorium)

Each year infections of animals and plants by parasitic nematodes cause many billions of dollars of agricultural damage. Over a billion people worldwide, particularly in developing nations, are infected by nematodes and suffer from the resulting debilitating diseases. Currently, only a few investigators address problems of parasitic nematodes using C. elegans. To encourage and facilitate more interactions between the C. elegans and parasitic nematode communities, a workshop was held at the 2013 International C. elegans Meeting in which experts in plant, animal and human parasitic nematodes spoke on the life history and unique biology of these parasitic species and on outstanding issues in their field. A key goal of this session was to make C. elegans scientists aware of the issues and problems that parasitic nematode researchers face and pave the way for applying the powerful approaches and technologies that have advanced C. elegans research to parasitic nematodes.

We are hosting a modified version of this session at the start of the upcoming 2015 C. elegans meeting (our session and registration both take place in the afternoon of June 24) in which C. elegans researchers who have worked with other nematodes are invited to share their results and experiences. If you would like to speak at this session, please send your abstract(s) by May 21 to Marty Chalfie.

WormBase release WS247

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Orthology update

* Data from Inparanoid was updated to version 8
* Orthology data for all core nemtatodes and model organisms was imported from WormBase Parasite release 1
* OMA and TreeFam data was removed in preparation for an update (TreeFam accessions will remain as database crossreferences)

Expression and Picture update

* A large set of expression graphs for other nematodes produced by Yanai’s has been added

RNASeq data

The RNASeq data will become richer in WS247.

There will also be “control” mean and median FPKM values derived from the data which does not have a specific experimental condition applied.

New/updated reference genomes

This release we see a rebuild of C. elegans, B. malayi and O. volvulus. Various data classes and curational activites have been undertaken on these species since the release of WS246