Database Commons

a catalog of worldwide biological databases

DoriC was first launched in 2007 as a database of replication origins (oriCs) in bacterial genomes and has since been constantly updated to integrate the latest research progress in this field. The database was subsequently extended to include the oriCs in archaeal genomes as well as those in plasmids. This latest release, DoriC 12.0, includes the oriCs in both draft and complete prokaryotic genomes. At the same time, the number of oriCs in the database has also increased significantly and currently contains over 200 000 bacterial entries distributed in more than 40 phyla. Among them, a large number are from bacteria in new phyla whose oriCs were not explored before. Additionally, new oriC features and improvements have been introduced, especially in the visualization and analysis of oriCs. Currently, DoriC is considered as an important database in the fields of bioinformatics, microbial genomics, and even synthetic biology, providing a valuable resource as well as a comprehensive platform for the research on oriCs. DoriC 12.0 can be accessed at https://tubic.org/doric/ and http://tubic.tju.edu.cn/doric/.

Replication of chromosomes is one of the central events in the cell cycle. Chromosome replication begins at specific sites, called origins of replication (oriCs), for all three domains of life. However, the origins of replication still remain unknown in a considerably large number of bacterial and archaeal genomes completely sequenced so far. The availability of increasing complete bacterial and archaeal genomes has created challenges and opportunities for identification of their oriCs in silico, as well as in vivo. Based on the Z-curve theory, we have developed a web-based system Ori-Finder to predict oriCs in bacterial genomes with high accuracy and reliability by taking advantage of comparative genomics, and the predicted oriC regions have been organized into an online database DoriC, which is publicly available at http://tubic.tju.edu.cn/doric/ since 2007. Five years after we constructed DoriC, the database has significant advances over the number of bacterial genomes, increasing about 4-fold. Additionally, oriC regions in archaeal genomes identified by in vivo experiments, as well as in silico analyses, have also been added to the database. Consequently, the latest release of DoriC contains oriCs for >1500 bacterial genomes and 81 archaeal genomes, respectively.