Databases and Ontologies cneViewer: A Database of Conserved Noncoding Elements for Studies of Tissue-Specific Gene Regulation

Summary: There are thousands of strongly conserved noncoding elements (CNEs) in vertebrate genomes, and their functions remain largely unknown. However, without biologically relevant criteria for prioritizing them, selecting particular CNE sequences to study can be haphazard. To address this problem, we present cneViewer – a database and webtool that systematizes information on conserved non-coding DNA elements in zebrafish. A key feature is the ability to search for CNEs that may be relevant to tissue-specific gene regula-tion, based on known developmental expression patterns of nearby genes. cneViewer provides this and other organizing features that significantly facilitate experimental design and CNE analysis