MDL Information Systems has released MDL Core Interface 1.0, the middleware server for its three-tier application development architecture, MDL Discovery Framework. MDL Core Interface can be used to integrate MDL and non-MDL applications and databases, and provides access to Java application programming interfaces for custom software development. It also provides an integrating foundation for all of MDL’s new products, including the company’s DiscoveryGate web-based research environment.
Draft genome annotation for rat from Softberry’s Fgenesh++ gene prediction software is available from Softberry’s GenomeExplorer at: www.softberry.com/berry.phtml? topic=ratexp, as well as the University of California, Santa Cruz, genome browser at: http://genome.ucsc.edu/cgi-bin/hgGateway?org=Rat. The annotation, which used the Nov. 2002 rat assembly produced by the Baylor College of Medicine Rat Genome Sequencing Center and the Rat Genome Sequencing Consortium, contains 43,008 genes, including 28,955 genes supported by non-redundant proteins, and 3,763 genes corresponding to rat Refseq mRNA.
Dalke Scientific Software has released EUtils 1.0, a Python library for the Entrez databases at NCBI, at: www.dalkescientific.com/EUtils/. The package allows developers to write programs that directly query the NCBI databases via Entrez.
The annual Nucleic Acids Research database issue is available at http://nar.oupjournals.org/content/vol31/issue1/. The issue, which includes papers on 129 biological databases, is freely available online to subscribers and non-subscribers of the journal.