FAQ

What are clusters, contigs, singlets, and singletons?

EST sequences are first screened to remove contaminant sequences such as rRNA, mitochondrial DNA, E. Coli sequences, vector sequence, and for quality. ESTs were then clustered based on sequence similarity. Each cluster is then assembled into contigs to make longer representative sequences for each cluster. Singletons are clusters of one sequence, while singlets are contigs of one sequence. The goal of this process is that each cluster will represent all the products from a single gene and that the contigs in each cluster will represent the splice forms for each gene.

The sequence ids do not match those found in NCBI?

The sequence ids on this site are those used internally at the Columbia Genome Center and University of Florida. Currently we are adding the NCBI ids to our website as well and should be ready in the first week of January 2007.

How can I request a specific clone?

Currently we are implementing a process for handling such requests that should be in place by the end of January 2007.

When will the Aplysia genome sequence be available and can I run blast searches on this site?

Currently, a 2x draft assembly is available on NCBI in the trace archives. We are in the process of upgrading this site to handle a variety of blast queries against this assembly. Additional genomic sequencing is underway at the Broad Institute and will be made available through NCBI according to the release policies established at the Broad Institute. As this data is released, we hope to provide access through this site as well.