The TRANSPATH signal transduction database: a knowledge base on signal transduction networks

TRANSPATH is an information system on gene-regulatory pathways, and an extension module to the TRANSFAC database system (Wingender et al., Nucleic Acids Res., 28, 316-319, 2000). It focuses on pathways involved in the regulation of transcription factors in different species, mainly human, mouse and rat. Elements of the relevant signal transduction pathways like complexes, signaling molecules, and their states are stored together with information about their interaction in an object-oriented database. The database interface provides clickable maps and automatically generated pathway cascades as additional ways to explore the data. All information is validated with references to the original publications. Also, references to other databases are provided (TRANSFAC, SWISS-PROT, EMBL, PubMed and others).

AVAILABILITY

The database is available over (http://transpath.gbf.de) for interactive perusal. As an exchange format for the data, eXtensible Markup Language (XML) flatfiles and a Document Type Definition (DTD) are provided.

The TRANSFAC system on gene expression regulation

The TRANSFAC database on transcription factors and their DNA-binding sites and profiles (http://www.gene-regulation.de/) has been quantitatively extended and supplemented by a number of modules. These modules give information about pathologically relevant mutations in regulatory regions and transcription factor genes (PathoDB), scaffold/matrix attached regions (S/MARt DB), signal transduction (TRANSPATH) and gene expression sources (CYTOMER). Altogether, these distinct database modules constitute the TRANSFAC system. They are accompanied by a number of program routines for identifying potential transcription factor binding sites or for localizing individual components in the regulatory network of a cell.

TRANSFAC: an integrated system for gene expression regulation

TRANSFAC is a database on transcription factors, their genomic binding sites and DNA-binding profiles (http://transfac.gbf.de/TRANSFAC/). Its content has been enhanced, in particular by information about training sequences used for the construction of nucleotide matrices as well as by data on plant sites and factors. Moreover, TRANSFAC has been extended by two new modules: PathoDB provides data on pathologically relevant mutations in regulatory regions and transcription factor genes, whereas S/MARt DB compiles features of scaffold/matrix attached regions (S/MARs) and the proteins binding to them. Additionally, the databases TRANSPATH, about signal transduction, and CYTOMER, about organs and cell types, have been extended and are increasingly integrated with the TRANSFAC data sources.

Expanding the TRANSFAC database towards an expert system of regulatory molecular mechanisms

TRANSFAC is a database on transcription factors, their genomic binding sites and DNA-binding profiles. In addition to being updated and extended by new features, it has been complemented now by a series of additional database modules. Among them, modules which provide data about signal transduction pathways (TRANSPATH) or about cell types/organs/developmental stages (CYTOMER) are available as well as an updated version of the previously described COMPEL database. The databases are available on the WWW at http://transfac.gbf.de/