Comparing 2-D Electrophoresis Gels Across Internet Databases

Abstract

In refs. 1-3 and in the previous edition of this book, we described a computerassisted visual method, Flicker, for comparing two two-dimensional (2-D) protein gel images across the Internet, http://www.lecb.ncifcrf.gov/flicker/. This approach may be useful for comparing similar samples created in different laboratories to help putatively identify or suggest protein spot identification. Two-dimension gels and associated databases are increasingly appearing on the Internet (4-17) in World Wide Web (Web) servers (18) and through federated databases (DB) (19). As this is an update on Flicker, we will not review the recent literature on 2-D gel databases or 2-D gel analysis systems here. Table 1 lists some Web URL addresses for a number of 2-D protein gel databases that contain 2-D gel images with many identified proteins. This opens up the possibility of comparing one’s own experimental 2-D gel image data with gel images of similar biological material from remote Internet databases in other laboratories. The image analysis method described here allows scientists to more easily collaborate and compare gel image data over the Web.