title: MyDas, an extensible Java DAS server.
abstract: A large number of diverse, complex, and distributed data resources are currently available in the Bioinformatics domain. The pace of discovery and the diversity of information means that centralised reference databases like UniProt and Ensembl cannot integrate all potentially relevant information sources. From a user perspective however, centralised access to all relevant information concerning a specific query is essential. The Distributed Annotation System (DAS) defines a communication protocol to exchange annotations on genomic and protein sequences; this standardisation enables clients to retrieve data from a myriad of sources, thus offering centralised access to end-users.We introduce MyDas, a web server that facilitates the publishing of biological annotations according to the DAS specification. It deals with the common functionality requirements of making data available, while also providing an extension mechanism in order to implement the specifics of data store interaction. MyDas allows the user to define where the required information is located along with its structure, and is then responsible for the communication protocol details.
authors.affiliation: Computational Biology Group, Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.
authors.forename: Gustavo A
authors.initials: GA
authors.lastname: Salazar
authors.forename: Leyla J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: García
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Jones
authors.forename: Rafael C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Jimenez
authors.forename: Antony F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Quinn
authors.forename: Andrew M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Jenkinson
authors.forename: Nicola
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mulder
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hunter
authors.forename: Henning
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hermjakob
mesh_terms: D019295:Computational Biology / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D003195:Computer Communication Networks / Q000295:instrumentation; D030541:Databases, Genetic