March 15, 2007 (Vol. 27, No. 6)
URL:
http://www.genebee.msu.su
Rating:
Strong Points: Analyses abound
Weak Points: Very clunky
Summary:
ponsored by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research, GeneBee is a site that takes an unusual approach to serving molecular biology. Literally ‘abuzz’ (get it?) with search engines, GeneBee provides access to numerous tools for aligning and screening nucleic acid sequences. At GeneBee, one can search protein/nucleic acid databanks for keywords, perform multiple protein sequence alignments, format alignments visually, compare alignments, predict phylogenetic trees, do RNA secondary structure prediction, identify ORFs, BLAST, and use several other approaches to align desired sequences. While the site is literally a sequence analysis toolbox in a bottle, it does have its shortcomings; the chief of which is a set of clunky interfaces and the requirement for many of the routines to e-mail results back. Still, the analyses are free, so one shouldn’t be too snotty.
