title: ETHNOS : A versatile electronic tool for the development and curation of national genetic databases.
abstract: National and ethnic mutation databases (NEMDBs) are emerging online repositories, recording extensive information about the described genetic heterogeneity of an ethnic group or population. These resources facilitate the provision of genetic services and provide a comprehensive list of genomic variations among different populations. As such, they enhance awareness of the various genetic disorders. Here, we describe the features of the ETHNOS software, a simple but versatile tool based on a flat-file database that is specifically designed for the development and curation of NEMDBs. ETHNOS is a freely available software which runs more than half of the NEMDBs currently available. Given the emerging need for NEMDB in genetic testing services and the fact that ETHNOS is the only off-the-shelf software available for NEMDB development and curation, its adoption in subsequent NEMDB development would contribute towards data content uniformity, unlike the diverse contents and quality of the available gene (locus)-specific databases. Finally, we allude to the potential applications of NEMDBs, not only as worldwide central allele frequency repositories, but also, and most importantly, as data warehouses of individual-level genomic data, hence allowing for a comprehensive ethnicity-specific documentation of genomic variation.
authors.affiliation: Erasmus MC, MGC-Department of Cell Biology and Genetics, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Sjozef
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: van Baal
authors.forename: Joël
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zlotogora
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lagoumintzis
authors.forename: Vassiliki
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gkantouna
authors.forename: Ioannis
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Tzimas
authors.forename: Konstantinos
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Poulas
authors.forename: Athanassios
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tsakalidis
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Romeo
authors.forename: George P
authors.initials: GP
authors.lastname: Patrinos
mesh_terms: D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods*; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000235:genetics; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007557:Israel; D058977:Molecular Sequence Annotation; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics; D010641:Phenotype; D012984:Software