About Us

History

The <mds_ies_db> was initially created as the MDS_IES_DB by Andre R. O. Calvanti in 2004 at Princeton University. At that time, the database contained 13 organisms, 29 different pairs of micronuclear and macronuclear genes, 440 MDS pairs, 392 IESs, and 361 pointer sequences. Since then, Next-Generation Sequencing has emerged and the whole macronuclear and micronuclear genomes of Oxytricha trifallax and Tetrahymena thermophila have been sequenced. In 2014, Jonathan Burns began to restructure and modernize the MDS_IES_DB as the <mds_ies_db> to incorporate the new genomes and to provide a convenient means of viewing the rearrangement data. Further updates were made starting in 2021 by Tejasvi Channagiri to add support for the new annotation pipeline, SDRAP, developed by Jasper Braun. The new database includes a variety of new features, such as a genome browser and chord diagrams. In addition, the <mds_ies_db> is ready to include rearrangement information for the genomes of other ciliate species. The database is currently supported by the USF Math-Bio Lab at University of South Florida and the Landweber Lab at Columbia University.

Development of the <mds_ies_db> is funded by the National Institutes of Health (No. R01 GM109459).

If you have sequenced MAC and MIC genomes for other ciliate species, please contact Laura Landweber at Laura.Landweber@columbia.edu.

Contributors