The ACEDB Genome Database

Abstract

Systematic genome mapping and sequencing projects are generating resources that will permanently change the practice of molecular biology. To maximise their effect, we have to make the information available to the scientific community in as useful a form as possible. It has been said that the sheer quantity of genomic information that we are just now beginning to gather will cause problems for any database system that must store it. That is not in itself strictly true; in fact the current total of genome mapping and sequence data, for all organisms combined, would sit comfortably in a one gigabyte disk, which is small for a workstation, and even conceivable for a PC. Furthermore, although the amount of genome data being collected is undergoing exponential growth, so is the capacity of computer storage systems, with an even shorter doubling time, so the issue of raw storage capacity is becoming progressively easier.