The Iccare web server: an attempt to merge sequence and mapping information for plant and animal species

Abstract

The Iccare web server, http://genopole.toulouse.inra.fr/bioinfo/Iccare, provides a simple yet efficient tool for crude EST (expressed sequence tag) annotation specifically dedicated to comparative mapping approaches. Iccare uses all the EST and mRNA sequences from public databases for an organism of interest (query species) and compares them to all the transcripts of one reference organism (Homo sapiens or Arabidopsis thaliana). The results are displayed according to the location of the genes on the chromosomes of the reference organism. Gene structure information and sequence similarities are combined in a graphical representation in order to pinpoint the nature of the transcript query sequence. The user can subsequently design primers or probes for the purpose of physical or genetic mapping. In addition to the query organisms already available in Iccare, users can perform a tailor-made search with their own sequences against the animal or plant reference organism genes.