July 22, 2008BMC Bioinformatics104 citationsOpen Access
Integrating biological data – the Distributed Annotation System
Key Points
- To enhance the Distributed Annotation System (DAS) for better integration of biological data.
- Described the infrastructure components of the Distributed Annotation System (DAS).
- Presented an updated version (1.53E) of the DAS specification to accommodate new data types.
- Developed an ontology for protein features within the DAS framework.
- The new DAS version effectively integrates additional data types, improving overall functionality.
- Enhancements address challenges in biological data integration, promoting wider adoption of the DAS protocol.
- Data sources using DAS have steadily increased, reflecting its growing use in bioinformatics.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: The Distributed Annotation System (DAS) is a widely adopted protocol for dynamically integrating a wide range of biological data from geographically diverse sources. DAS continues to expand its applicability and evolve in response to new challenges facing integrative bioinformatics. RESULTS: Here we describe the various infrastructure components of DAS and present a new extended version of the DAS specification. Version 1.53E incorporates several recent developments, including its extension to serve new data types and an ontology for protein features. CONCLUSION: Our extensions to the DAS protocol have facilitated the integration of new data types, and our improvements to the existing DAS infrastructure have addressed recent challenges. The steadily increasing numbers of available data sources demonstrates further adoption of the DAS protocol.
Cite This Study
Jenkinson et al. (2008) studied this question.