EchoBASE is a new database that has been created to integrate information from post-genomic experiments into a single resource with the aim of then providing functional predictions for the 1500 or so gene products for which we have no knowledge of their physiological function.. While EchoBASE provides a basic annotation of the genome, taken from other databases, its novelty is in the curation of post-genomic experiments and their linkage to genes of unknown function.
Experiments published on E. coli are curated to one of two levels. Papers dealing with the determination of function of a single gene are briefly described, while larger dataset are actually included in the database and can be searched and manipulated. This includes data for proteomics studies, protein-protein interaction studies, microarray data, functional genomic approaches (looking at multiple deletion strains for novel phenotypes) and a wide range of predictions that come out of in silico bioinformatic approaches.
The aim of the database is to provide hypothesis for the functions of uncharacterised gene products that may be used by the E. coli research community to further our knowledge of this model bacterium.