We are pleased to announce the beta release of the Phenoscape Knowledgebase (KB) at http://kb.phenoscape.org/ and would like to solicit feedback.
Phenoscape KB integrates phenotypic data from genetic studies of zebrafish with evolutionarily variable phenotypes from the literature of fishes. It currently contains 333,987 phenotype statements about 2,310 taxa (mainly ostariophysan fishes), from 51 publications, and 11,267 phenotype statements about 2,953 genes retrieved from ZFIN (zfin.org). You can explore these data by searching for anatomical terms, taxa (by Latin name), or genes (by ZFIN gene symbol).
You will notice that entering search terms is simplified by auto-completion, so typing the first few letters of a term, taxon, or gene symbol often suffices. There is also a “tag cloud” on the front page that shows the terms most frequently occurring in the KB – click on a term to search for data relevant to that term.
The beta release was first announced at the ASIH meetings in Portland, Oregon this past summer in connection with “Ontologies for Ichthyology and Herpetology” workshop (https://www.phenoscape.org/wiki/ASIH09_workshop).
We expect to make a broader release announcement in February 2010, after we have incorporated the feedback from early users and implemented a number of important features that did not make it into the beta release.
So please take a few minutes to explore Phenoscape KB and send us your feedback and ideas (help@phenoscape.org).
Phenoscape 