Database Annotation in Molecular Biology

Two factors dominate current molecular biology: the amount of raw data is increasing very rapidly and successful applications in biomedical research require carefully curated and annotated databases. The quality of the experimental data – especially nucleic acid sequences – is satisfactory; however, annotations depend on features inferred from the data rather than measured directly, for instance the identification of genes in genome sequences. It is essential that these inferences are as accurate as possible and this requires human intervention. With the recognition of the importance of accurate database annotation and the requirement for individuals with particular const…