SRI International Bioinformatics1

Searching BioCyc

Ron Caspi

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Help is One Click Away!

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The Web Account System

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The Web Account System

Creating a web account enables you to:

Save Object Groups

Define page formatting preferences

Define Overview layout preferences

Save organism groups for comparative analysis

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Save Organism Groups with Web Accounts

Note the My Lists tab on the multi-organism selector for comparative analyses.

When you perform comparative analyses, you can easily save groups of organisms for re-using at a later time.

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Define a Favorite Database with Web Accounts

If you create a web

account, you can define

a favorite database that

will be opened by

default when you login

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Searching

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Why the Need for Dedicated Search Tools

Search BioCyc for “L-arginine”

2080 results

Need to have specific tools for finding exactly what we search for.

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BioCyc Searches

Multiple searches available for finding information in different ways

The easiest searches to use are fairly coarse

Start by selecting database to search

Simplest search: Quick Search At upper right of most pages

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Selecting the Database

You can only search one database at a time*!

* With the exception of Google searches

Click on word “change” under Search menu or under Quick Search button

In resulting selector, choose a PGDB

Start typing a word in organism name

Click on letter to navigate to organisms starting with that letter

Click a frequently used PGDB Select by Taxonomy

All subsequent searches will apply to that database

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The Quick Search Box What can you type here:

Gene names (dnaA ) Compound name (L-lysine) Pathway name (peptidoglycan biosynthesis) Reaction name (lysine decarboxylase) Protein name (peptidase) EC number (1.3.1.26) Organism name (Escherichia coli) Frame ID (CPLX-8024) GO term (0006086) Links to other databases (O33998) An exact term using the format (Peptidase D search:exact) Limited term (hydrogen type:compound)

What doesn’t work: Exact text using the Google format (“peptidase D”)

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Quick Search Results

Results are divided into multiple categories

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Examples of searches performed by users of the BioCyc website:

Successful Unsuccessful Ascorbate pheV EC 3.4.17.5 Transmembrane helix

6 Sigma factor 3.4.24.B11 Polysulfide reductase ABC cobalt transporter Entner-Doudoroff pathway affinity of DnaACyanobacteria DnaA

A simple auto-correction mechanism tries to correct typos. For example, searching for “sacrosine” will find “sarcosine”.

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Quick Gene Search

Useful when only interested in genes.

For example, compare the results when searching for “dnaA” by using the Quick Search and Gene Search buttons.

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The Search Menu

Search Menu Object-specific searches Advanced search Ontologies search Google search BLAST search Search of full-text articles (EcoCyc only)

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Google This Site

The BioCyc site is indexed by Google

You can launch a Google text search from:

1. Search → Google This Site

2. The alternative searches box that appears on Quick Search results pages

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Object-Specific Searches

The first four items in the search menu provide a medium-level search interface against single types of objects

Use of filtering

Click on triangles at the left to expand or hide filters

Note that if a filter is hidden it will not be used in a search

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Compound Search

List All buttons – quick way to get complete listsExamples for compound searching:

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Search Genes/Proteins/RNAs

List All buttons – quick way to get complete listsExtensive filtering options

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Search Pathways

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Advanced Search

The BioVelo query languageSAQP: Structured Advanced Query Page

Permits the definition of complex searches without mastering BioVelo.

To learn more about the advanced query interface, see online documentation.

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Sequence Search by BLAST

Nothing unusual here – a regular BLAST interface that permits BLASTing sequences against BioCyc PGDBs.

The results are linked to the PGDB gene/protein pages

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The desktop version of Pathway Tools allows definition of growth media, gene knockout growth information, and growth data for phenotype microarray plates.

Growth Media and Phenotype

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EcoCyc-Specific Searches: Growth MediaSearch for growth media based on:

namecompounds presentcompounds not presentobserved growth

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EcoCyc-Specific Searches: Textpresso

Mining E. coli literature poses special challenges – because almost every molecular biology paper references E. coli

The solution – EcoCyc Textpresso! An E. coli only collection of literature

30,000 full-text articles and 6,500 abstracts.

Full text literature searches

Results presented at bottom of page