VectorBase is one of the five
Bioinformatics Resource Centers (BRC) funded by the
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID, ) is one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health (NIH), an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). NIAID's ...
(NIAID), a component of the
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...
(NIH), which is an agency of the
United States Department of Health and Human Services
The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the U.S. federal government created to protect the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its motto is ...
. VectorBase is focused on invertebrate vectors of
human pathogen A human pathogen is a pathogen (microbe or microorganism such as a virus, bacterium, prion, or fungus) that causes disease in humans.
The human physiological defense against common pathogens (such as ''Pneumocystis'') is mainly the responsibility ...
s working with the sequencing centers and the research community to curate vector genomes (mainly
genome annotation
DNA annotation or genome annotation is the process of identifying the locations of genes and all of the coding regions in a genome and determining what those genes do. An annotation (irrespective of the context) is a note added by way of explanati ...
).
Genomes covered in the VectorBase database
* ''
Aedes aegypti
''Aedes aegypti'', the yellow fever mosquito, is a mosquito that can spread dengue fever, chikungunya, Zika fever, Mayaro and yellow fever viruses, and other disease agents. The mosquito can be recognized by black and white markings on its le ...
''
* ''
Anopheles gambiae''
* ''
Culex quinquefasciatus
''Culex'' is a genus of mosquitoes, several species of which serve as vectors of one or more important diseases of birds, humans, and other animals. The diseases they vector include arbovirus infections such as West Nile virus, Japanese encep ...
''
* ''
Ixodes scapularis
''Ixodes scapularis'' is commonly known as the deer tick or black-legged tick (although some people reserve the latter term for '' Ixodes pacificus'', which is found on the west coast of the US), and in some parts of the US as the bear tick. It w ...
''
* ''
Pediculus humanus
''Pediculus humanus'' is a species of louse that infects humans. It comprises two subspecies:
*''Pediculus humanus humanus'' Linnaeus, 1758 – body louse
*''Pediculus humanus capitis'' De Geer, 1767 – head louse
The head louse (''Pedicu ...
''
* ''
Rhodnius prolixus
''Rhodnius prolixus'' is the principal triatomine vector of the Chagas parasite due to both its sylvatic and domestic populations in northern South America as well as to its exclusively domestic populations in Central America. It has a wide ran ...
''
Tools available through the VectorBase site
* Genome browser
* Community annotation system
* Microarray and gene expression repository
* Controlled vocabularies for anatomy,
insecticide resistance
Pesticide resistance describes the decreased susceptibility of a pest population to a pesticide that was previously effective at controlling the pest. Pest species evolve pesticide resistance via natural selection: the most resistant specimens s ...
and vector-borne diseases (malaria and dengue fever)
* BLAST searches for all covered genomes
See also
*
Vectors in epidemiology
References
External links
vectorbase.orgThe NIAID page describing the goals and activities of the BRCs
Pathogen PortalHub site for the five BRCs; provides summary information
;VectorBase genome browsers
''Aedes aegypti'' genome browserat VectorBase
''Anopheles gambiae'' genome browserat VectorBase
''Culex quinquefasciatus'' genome browserat VectorBase
''Ixodes scapularis'' genome browserat VectorBase
''Pediculus humanus'' genome browserat VectorBase
''Rhodnius prolixus'' genome browserat VectorBase
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Biological databases
Online databases
Biology websites
Epidemiology organizations