Xanthusbase

Xanthusbase provides a community-curated model organism database for the bacterium Myxococcus xanthus, supporting collaborative genome annotation and serving as a centralized genomic reference for research and education.

Key Features:

• Collaborative repository: A wiki-style, community-curated repository for collecting and refining genomic annotations specific to Myxococcus xanthus.
• Educational resource: Materials and annotation records intended for use in undergraduate genome annotation training and coursework.
• Community annotation: Mechanisms that enable the research community to contribute to and improve organism annotations collaboratively.
• Openmods installer and modular deployment: An installer named Openmods enables other microbial model organism communities to deploy the platform, producing derivatives such as Xenorhabdusbase, Caulobacterbase, and Bdellovibriobase.

Scientific Applications:

• Genome annotation: Supports community-driven annotation projects for identifying and curating genes and genetic elements in Myxococcus xanthus.
• Reference database for M. xanthus research: Centralizes genomic data to facilitate studies of genomic structure and gene function in Myxococcus xanthus.
• Educational training in genome annotation: Serves as a practical dataset and platform for undergraduate instruction in genome annotation methods.

Methodology:

Employs a wiki-like community curation model and provides the Openmods installer for modular deployment; Openmods has been used to create Xenorhabdusbase, Caulobacterbase, and Bdellovibriobase.