title: Xanthusbase after five years expands to become Openmods.
abstract: Xanthusbase (http://www.xanthusbase.org), a model organism database for the bacterium Myxococcus xanthus, functions as a collaborative information repository based on Wikipedia principles. It was created more than 5 years ago to serve as a cost-effective reference database for M. xanthus researchers, an education tool for undergraduate students to learn about genome annotation, and a means for the community of researchers to collaboratively improve their organism's annotation. We have achieved several goals and are seeking creative solutions to ongoing challenges. Along the way we have made several important improvements to Xanthusbase related to stability, security and usability. Most importantly, we have designed and implemented an installer that enables other microbial model organism communities to use it as a MOD. This version, called Openmods, has already been used to create Xenorhabdusbase (http://xenorhabdusbase.bact.wisc.edu), Caulobacterbase (http://caulobacterbase.bsd.uchicago.edu) and soon Bdellovibriobase.
authors: Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA.
authors: Philip C
authors: PC
authors: Pratt-Szeliga
authors: Aaron D
authors: AD
authors: Skewes
authors: Jinyuan
authors: J
authors: Yan
authors: Laura G
authors: LG
authors: Welch
authors: Roy D
authors: RD
authors: Welch
mesh_terms: D030541:Databases, Genetic; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D023281:Genomics / Q000193:education; D020407:Internet; D058977:Molecular Sequence Annotation; D016941:Myxococcus xanthus / Q000235:genetics*; D012984:Software