Ensembl: A New View of Genome Browsing www.ensembl.org

Abstract

An increasing number of methods are being developed to sequence and compare whole genomes, and to detect functionally important coding and non-coding regions.  Genome browsers face the challenge of displaying an integrated picture of these data for the biological community.  Ensembl allows life scientists to browse through genomic data using an extensive website, and programmers to access the same data directly through the Perl API.  This paper explores the browser and underlying data, providing a walk-through of information for one gene with a focus on variation.  We hope to demonstrate the power of the browser in this popular, world-wide genomic tool.