Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-25-2011

Publication Title

PLoS One

Volume

6

Issue

5

First page number:

1

Last page number:

17

Abstract

Many bioinformatic databases and applications focus on a limited domain of knowledge federating links to information in other databases. This segregated data structure likely limits our ability to investigate and understand complex biological systems. To facilitate research, therefore, we have built HIVToolbox, which integrates much of the knowledge about HIV proteins and allows virologists and structural biologists to access sequence, structure, and functional relationships in an intuitive web application. HIV-1 integrase protein was used as a case study to show the utility of this application. We show how data integration facilitates identification of new questions and hypotheses much more rapid and convenient than current approaches using isolated repositories. Several new hypotheses for integrase were created as an example, and we experimentally confirmed a predicted CK2 phosphorylation site.

Keywords

Bioinformatics; Biologists; Database management--Computer programs; Databases; HIVToolbox; HIV (Viruses); Virologists; Web applications

Disciplines

Bioinformatics | Biology | Immune System Diseases | Life Sciences | Structural Biology | Virus Diseases

Language

English

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

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