Database Commons

a catalog of worldwide biological databases

The IMB Jena Image Library of Biological Macromolecules (http://www.imb-jena.de/IMAGE.html) is aimed at a better dissemination of information on three-dimensional biopolymer structures with an emphasis on visualization and analysis. It provides access to all structure entries deposited at the Protein Data Bank (PDB) and Nucleic Acid Database (NDB). In addition, basic information on the architecture of biological macromolecules is offered. Recent developments include a site database and an analysis tool that identifies all residues surrounding hetero components or sites according to geometrical criteria. This enables one to search for all structures with a certain pattern of amino acids/nucleotides/water adjacent to hetero components or sites. A new PDB/SWISS-PROT cross-reference database combines information from both PDB and SWISS-PROT, thus providing significantly more cross-references than either PDB or SWISS-PROT. The existing brief descriptions of X-ray, NMR and FTIR methods for structure determination are supplemented by information on circular dichroism.