August 1, 2007 (Vol. 27, No. 14)
URL:
http://www.ciliaproteome.org
Rating:
Strong Points: Useful info for cilia research
Weak Points: Confusing in places
Summary:
Cilia have got to be some of the most amazing molecular motors found in cells. The means of locomotion of many a cell and a way of moving things around others, cilia are composed of microtubules, which are in turn composed of tubulin. The Ciliaproteome is a Johns Hopkins-based site with the aim of assembling “all existing ciliary and basal body proteomics data into an open resource for the scientific community with the ultimate aim of exploring further the role of the cilium in disease and the mechanisms underlying ciliary biology.” That’s no short order. Toward these ends, options are available for 1) searching for ciliary proteins; 2) identifying ciliary orthologs; 3) BLASTing the ciliary proteome; and 4) miscellaneous subjects. Search functions are largely accessed by pull-down menus, though it was difficult in places to determine exactly what all had to be specified to perform a search. The user-friendliness of the site could thus use a bit of improvement. If you’re a researcher of cilia, you will almost certainly find something here to like.
