SwissBioPics

SwissBioPics provides interactive, high-resolution Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) cell images annotated with UniProt subcellular location identifiers to visualize and explore subcellular components across cell types from all kingdoms of life.

Key Features:

• SVG rendering: Images are rendered as Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) to preserve clarity and scalability without loss of quality.
• Annotated subcellular locations: Each subcellular location in images is tagged with unique identifiers from the UniProt controlled vocabulary of subcellular locations and organelles.
• Identifier-based highlighting: Specific subcellular locations and organelles can be highlighted using UniProt identifiers or Gene Ontology 'Cellular Component' identifiers.
• Organism specificity: Visualizations can be refined using organism identifiers from the NCBI Taxonomy.
• Cell library diversity: The image library covers cell types across all kingdoms, including animal muscle, neuronal and epithelial cells, and prokaryotic forms such as rods, cocci, clubs, and spirals.
• Web component and embedding: A web component with associated JavaScript and styling templates enables embedding and programmatic control of images in external resources.

Scientific Applications:

• Protein localization visualization: Maps UniProt and Gene Ontology annotations to image regions to display subcellular locations where proteins function.
• Database integration: Integration into resources such as UniProt to enhance visualization of subcellular locations and organelles.
• Comparative cell morphology: Facilitates comparison of subcellular organization across taxa and cell types, including diverse prokaryotic morphologies.
• Programmatic visualization embedding: Enables embedding of annotated cell images into external analyses and resources for automated highlighting via identifiers.

Methodology:

Images are rendered as SVG and each subcellular region is tagged with UniProt location identifiers; highlighting accepts UniProt or Gene Ontology 'Cellular Component' identifiers and can be scoped by NCBI Taxonomy organism identifiers; embedding and programmatic control are provided via a web component implemented with JavaScript and styling templates.