Plant & Animal Genome IX Conference

Workshop: Databases, Gene Systematics, and Nomenclature
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ERGO®: AN INTERACTIVE BIOINFORMATICS DATABASE

Integrated Genomics, Inc., 2201 W. Campbell Park Dr., Chicago, IL, 60612, USA

ERGO®, formerly known as WIT (http://216.190.101.28/IGwit), is an interactive database for the integration of genomic sequence and metabolic pathway information. Open reading frames (ORFs) are assigned functions, which in turn are assigned to pathways, thus allowing a complete metabolic reconstruction of an organism. An initial automatic assignment of functions is followed by manual curation by a team of experts. In addition, each user can assign his/her own functions and assert pathways. Currently 78 genomes, containing over 296,000 ORFs, are included in ERGO®. Most of the genomes are complete, and they span the three domains of life. ERGO® includes tools for sequence analysis (multiple sequence alignment, domain and motif identification), along with additional tools for exploiting gene context (domain fusion and chromosomal proximity). Often a pathway can be assigned in an organism, even though not all components of the pathway are identifiable by sequence analysis. This allows the user to search the genome for the ômissingö enzymes, and candidates can be identified by the combination of sequence analysis and gene context.