A Data and Knowledge Base for Cell Signaling Networks, Genome Informatics Workshop

Each cell in a multicellular animal is programmed during development to respond to speci c outer chemical signals. Some of these chemical signals activate receptor proteins on the surface of the cell that trigger series of membrane and intracellular signal transduc-tions, and eventually in uence gene expressions. These complex cell signaling mechanisms have been unveiled at molecular levels in various multicellular organisms in the past decade. It was found that these molecular signaling pathways or what we may call cell signaling networks (CSN) play important roles in wide range of biological phenomena that char-acterize multicellular animals. These phenomena include development, dierentiation, reproduction, morphogenesis, carcinogenesis, apoptosis, and even learning. We have developed the data and knowledge base of the CSN that consists of interacting extracellular (xenobiotic) chemicals and biomolecules. The system contains signaling path-ways, and structural and functional data of the molecules. The system was implemented on UNIX workstations using an object oriented database management system ACEDB.