Gateway to the worm community

Lim, Chang-Su

doi:10.1186/gb-2001-3-1-reports2007

Web report
Published: 21 December 2001

Gateway to the worm community

Chang-Su Lim

Genome Biology volume 3, Article number: reports2007 (2001) Cite this article

1549 Accesses
Metrics details

Abstract

This portal to information on Caenorhabditis elegans provides a tremendous service to the dedicated worm community and is also useful for the nonspecialist.

Mirror sites

the UK mirror of the C. elegans WWW Server.

Content

This portal to information on Caenorhabditis elegans provides a tremendous service to the dedicated worm community and is also useful for the nonspecialist. Unique features are a robust search engine that allows one to search all the worm literature (including 'unpublished' information from the Worm Breeders' Gazette and meeting abstracts) and information about C. elegans for nonspecialists. This website also links to all of the other major worm websites, including WormBase (the genome sequence repository and more), the Caenorhabditis elegans Genetics Center (CGC; the strain repository) and pages with information about C. elegans methods, researchers and the newsgroup bionet.celegans, which includes information, discussion and announcements related to C .elegans.

Navigation

No registration is required and anyone can access the site. Once you get there, major links such as 'WormBase', 'Recent papers', 'CGC', 'EM Center', 'Software', 'Literature Search', 'Labs', 'Announcements' and so on, are lined up to choose from. For example, if you click 'Software', you will be given the option of accessing a few software programs, including the C. elegansgenome database program ACeDB. If ACeDB is clicked, you will be given a brief description of its features and a link to the AceDB homepage. Navigating through the links is easy and the site is very user-friendly.

Reporter's comments

Timeliness

The site is updated daily.

Best feature

The literature search feature is excellent due to its comprehensive coverage of all the past and recent literature including meeting abstracts.

Worst feature

Updates on worm lab information were unsatisfactory as some of the links were out-of-date.

Related websites

Related websites WormBase provides a repository of mapping, sequencing and phenotypic information about C. elegans and some closely related nematodes. It includes the essentially complete genomic sequence.