title: Xanthusbase: adapting wikipedia principles to a model organism database.
abstract: xanthusBase (http://www.xanthusbase.org) is the official model organism database (MOD) for the social bacterium Myxococcus xanthus. In many respects, M.xanthus represents the pioneer model organism (MO) for studying the genetic, biochemical, and mechanistic basis of prokaryotic multicellularity, a topic that has garnered considerable attention due to the significance of biofilms in both basic and applied microbiology research. To facilitate its utility, the design of xanthusBase incorporates open-source software, leveraging the cumulative experience made available through the Generic Model Organism Database (GMOD) project, MediaWiki (http://www.mediawiki.org), and dictyBase (http://www.dictybase.org), to create a MOD that is both highly useful and easily navigable. In addition, we have incorporated a unique Wikipedia-style curation model which exploits the internet's inherent interactivity, thus enabling M.xanthus and other myxobacterial researchers to contribute directly toward the ongoing genome annotation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, USA.
authors.forename: Bradley I
authors.initials: BI
authors.lastname: Arshinoff
authors.forename: Garret
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Suen
authors.forename: Eric M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Just
authors.forename: Sohel M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Merchant
authors.forename: Warren A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Kibbe
authors.forename: Rex L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Chisholm
authors.forename: Roy D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Welch
mesh_terms: D030561:Databases, Nucleic Acid; D004690:Encyclopedias as Topic; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D020407:Internet; D008954:Models, Biological; D016941:Myxococcus xanthus / Q000235:genetics*; D014584:User-Computer Interface