Review of Body Map
Title:
Body MapURL:
http://bodymap.ims.u-tokyo.ac.jp/Date Reviewed:
05/21/01Description:
Body map is a data base that contains information about theEST’s of human and mouse genes, both known and unknown.
It also has information about the tissue specific as well as time
dependent expression of particular mRNA’s. It also gives an
idea about the relative abundance of different mRNA’s in a
particular tissue which is particularly useful for gene chip
expression experiments.
Strengths:
It is a very useful site and the information it provides is easy tounderstand and interpret. Tissue specific search of mRNA can
be easily performed here. Additionally, it also links to some
other useful related links such as Unigene and Sugano. Search
for a particular mRNA can be done by several options as here,
which adds to the ease of its use.The results also provide links
to useful sites like NCBI, and pubmed references are also
linked. Another useful option is that we can directly determine
genes that are present or absent in some or all of the tissues at
the same time, rather than searching these queries separately.
The expression pattern of a given gene in various tissues is also shown
graphically which makes the interpretation very simple and easy
(example). The localization of the mRNA on the human genome can
also be found here. Also shows the distribution of the number of EST’s
on the different chromosomes in a tabular form
Weaknesses:
The number of EST’s is about 200 times less than that of Unigene.( 18998 in Body map vs 2539835 in Unigene) and in general is less
organized than Unigene. Further, if we search for a particular
mRNA/ gene, it gives hundreds or thousands of EST’s and it
becomes a tough task to look for the gene of our interest.
Additionally, many well known genes also are not present in
this data base which makes its usefulness limited. Further, search by
entering the sequence, although shown in the options, is not
operational yet.
Comprehensiveness:
Overall, the site is a comprehensive one, and gives quite abit of useful information about the gene of interest. Also has useful
links that work promptly. (However, I found Unigene much more
comprehensive than Body map).
Timeliness:
Doesn’t take too much of time. All the results come promptly.Ease of Use:
Very easy to use and straightforward.Responsiveness:
GoodSimilar or Related Sites:
Unigene, SAGE , SuganoOverall Evaluation:
3Reviewer:
Shaida AndrabiEmail:
shaida_andrabi@hotmail.com