Marine bacteria database
Species diversity is a central component of any healthy ecosystem. Nowhere is this more apparent than the ocean where scientists struggle to estimate the number and type of bacterioplankton. International efforts to isolate and identify different types of bacteria are in progress. Genetic techniques have proven effective and a number of bacterial sequences have already been uploaded to GenBank, the public collection of all known deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequences. The University of Kalmar in Sweden extracted all available cultured and uncultured sequences of 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid (16S rRNA) from GenBank and assembled them in a database. The database is accessible online at: http://www.icm.csic.es/bio/projects/basics/(opens in new window). The Swedish marine microbiologists enhanced the database by including information about the geographical location of the various types of bacterioplankton. This unique tool will open the door to new research projects, enabling either a regional or a global focus. It is hoped that the scientific community will contribute to maintaining and expanding the database as more 16S rRNA sequences become available.
