DbEST database

EST data are held in the dbEST database, which maintains its own format and identification number system and is accessible via the NCBI Web server, http // www.nbi.nlm.nih.gov/dbEST/. The sequence data, together with a summary of the dbEST annotation, are also distributed as a subsection of the primary DNA database. The publicly available EST analysis tools fall into three categories ... 

A variety of protein/DNA databases, such as GenBank, EMBL, NCBI, GenPept, Swiss-Prot, TrEMBL, PIR, OWL, IPI, and dbEST, are maintained by independent research groups for use by the public for proteome analysis. Databases have links to other databases and also provide vital information related to the identified proteins such as functions, any PTMs, domain and sites, 3D structures, homology to other proteins, associated diseases, sequence conflicts, and variants. 

Fig. 1. Frequency of chemokine cDNAs in the GenBank EST database. The complete cDNA sequence for each chemokine was compared against dbEST using the BLASTN program. Results reflect sequences deposited through February 1998 (1,442,166 entries).

EST queries can be accessed from the EST project pages (see ESTs and Full-length cDNA Clones below). Search by identifier allows users to query by identifier number or GenBank or dbEST accession number for any of the cDNA libraries. Search by homology allows users to search through the BLAST reports for sequence similarities of the consensus sequence of a group of ESTs to Drosophila and cross-species databases by keyword (e.g., by gene name). 

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