WormMine will be unavailable on Monday, February 24 due to a storage upgrade. We apologize for the inconvenience.
C. elegans paper wins AAAS Newcomb Cleaveland Prize for best Science paper
Congratulations to Jarrell, T.A., et. al, (Science 337: 437-444, 2012), the authors of a study describing the complete wiring diagram for the part of the nervous system that controls mating behavior in the C. elegans male . This paper was chosen as the most outstanding paper published in Science in the year June 2012 to May 2013.
Onchocerca volvulus
The new release (WS241) of WormBase includes Onchocerca volvulus, a filiarial nematode of clade III.
Onchocerca volvulus is a gonochoristic filarial nematode parasite of humans causing Onchocerciasis. Onchocerciasis, or River Blindness, is a neglected tropical disease (NTD) which affects over 37 million people, mainly in Africa. It is a severely debilitating disease, which is transmitted to humans by the bite of Simulium blackflies that live and breed near fast-flowing streams and rivers.
As it has been added as core WormBase nematode, we would like to welcome feedback from the community to improve the curation and representation of this new member species.
Topic Curation – Small RNA Biogenesis
WormBase will do a themed release for WS242, which will focus on the curation of small RNA biogenesis.
This will include new publications, ontologies, interactions, gene models and more.
During the course of the curation effort, 933 protein coding genes of C.elegans / C.remanei / C.briggsae / C.japonica / C.brenneri / B.malayi and O.volvulus will be investigated. In addition new ncRNA genes will be added to C.remanei / C.briggsae / C.japonica / C.brenneri and O.volvulus.
Quick tips on how to use the Gene Ontology
WormBase uses ontologies developed by the Gene Ontology (GO) Consortium to describe the biology of genes. For a quick and informative article on using the GO, please see this paper in PLOS Computational Biology.