Building and maintaing a database of genomic sequences repeated in the Arabidopsis genome will provide to annotators a tool for easy identification of genomic repeats. Such a database, AtRepBase, has been built. Preliminary analysis of chromosome 4 sequence demonstrates that approximately 50% of the genome is contained within gene regions and the remaining 50%, while not likely to encode genes, does contain many types of repeat elements (our research, Bevan, et al. 1998). It is then important to provide a means to easily search for these repeat elements as well as a repository for such sequences. We have formed a collaboration with Dr. Greg Copenhaver (Univ. of Chicago) to assemble in one location a database that combines repeats previously submitted to GenBank and having a known function along with those annotated as part of the CSHL genome sequencing initiative.
5 May 98