The Diatom EST Database

TheDiatomESTdatabase provides integrated access to expressedsequence tag (EST)data from twoeukar-yotic microalgae of the class Bacillariophyceae, Phaeodactylum tricornutum and Thalassiosira pseudonana. The database currently contains sequences of close to 30 000 ESTs organized into PtDB, the P.tricornutum EST database, and TpDB, the T.pseudonanaEST database. The EST sequences were clustered and assembled into a non-redundant set for each organism, and these non-redundant sequenceswere then subjected to automated annota-tion using similarity searches against protein and domain databases. EST sequences, clusters of con-tiguous sequences, their annotation and analysis with reference to the publicly available databases, and a codon usage table derived from a subset of sequences from PtDB and TpDB can all be accessed in the Diatom EST Database. The underlying RDBMS enables queries over the raw and annotated EST data and retrieval of information through a user-friendl