Databases on the Internet

Launch a browser on the local machine and try to find answers to the following questions.
Good luck in cyberspace!

1-1 Using ExPASy server

a. Look for the amino acid sequence of human carbonic anhydrase 2
b. Get the corresponding nucleic acid entries in EMBL and GenBank
c. Get a PDB file
d. Have a look at the chromosomal localisation of human carbonic anhydrase 2 using MIM or GDB
e. Is there a maize carbonic anhydrase? or a drosophila carbonic anhydrase?

1-2

a. Look for the SWISS-PROT entry of the yeast gene RPL36B
b. Follow the link to SGD (Saccharomyces Genome Database) and find the chromosomal location
c. Get the SGD entry of the 2nd gene in 5' on the same chromosomal strand
d. Follow the link to SWISS-PROT
e. Find the subcellular localisation of the protein
f. Have a look at the domain structure in PRODOM and get the list of proteins with at least one common domain

1-3

a. Find on the web a database for CFTR mutations

1-4

a. Find the gene teashirt in FlyBase
b. Get the corresponding SWISSPROT, EMBL and TRANSFAC entries from FlyBase

1-5

a. Go to the Genome Net server in Japan
b. Find a database called KEGG
c. In KEGG, find the enzyme number EC 1.2.3.4
d. Get from KEGG the ENZYME entry in ExPASy, then from ENZYME the SWISS-PROT entry, then from SWISS-PROT the corresponding PROSITE entry.
e. Have a look at BRENDA database from ENZYME entry.

[Answers]

2-1

a. Use SRS at EMBnet.ch or at EBI or use ENTREZ at NCBI and search for IL-2 receptor sequences in EMBL. Can you find all with a single search (there are three chains in the human and mouse receptors) ? How many entries in EMBL contain IL-2 receptor sequences?
b. Find the sequences of the mRNAs for the human alpha and gamma chains.
c. Follow cross-references to Swiss-Prot and Medline.
d. Retrieve Medline articles relevant to human IL-2 receptor sequences.
e. Retrieve the protein sequences directly from the Swiss-Prot server on ExPASy (www.expasy.org). Is the information different from the Swiss-Prot entries stored at the EBI? Try the Java feature table viewer!

2-2

a. Are the human IL-2R alpha and gamma genes present in the OMIM database?  Where are they localized (chromosome, arm, band) ?
b. Can you find single sources containing links to all of the information relevant to one gene?
c. View the cytogenetic maps of the regions surrounding the gene loci (use the Mapview2 Java viewer).
d. Are known diseases assosiated with these genes?
e. What are the clinical synopses?

[Answers]