BackgroundMicrosatellite DNA is one of many powerful genetic markers used for the construction of genetic linkage maps and the study of population genetics. The biological databases in public domain hold vast numbers of microsatellite sequences for many organisms including fishes. The microsatellite data available in these data sources were extracted and managed into a database that facilitates sequences analysis and browsing relevant information. The system also helps to design primer sequences for flanking regions of repeat loci for PCR identification of polymorphism within populations.DescriptionFishMicrosat is a database of microsatellite sequences of fishes and shellfishes that includes important aquaculture species such as Lates calcarifer, Ctenopharyngodon idella, Hypophthalmichthys molitrix, Penaeus monodon, Labeo rohita, Oreochromis niloticus, Fenneropenaeus indicus and Macrobrachium rosenbergii. The database contains 4398 microsatellite sequences of 41 species belonging to 15 families from the Indian subcontinent. GenBank of NCBI was used as a prime data source for developing the database. The database presents information about simple and compound microsatellites, their clusters and locus orientation within sequences. The database has been integrated with different tools in a web interface such as primer designing, locus finding, mapping repeats, detecting similarities among sequences across species, and searching using motifs and keywords. In addition, the database has the ability to browse information on the top 10 families and the top 10 species, through record overview.ConclusionsFishMicrosat database is a useful resource for fish and shellfish microsatellite analyses and locus identification across species, which has important applications in population genetics, evolutionary studies and genetic relatedness among species. The database can be expanded further to include the microsatellite data of fishes and shellfishes from other regions and available information on genome sequencing project of species of aquaculture importance.

A voluminous information is available on karyological studies of fishes; however, limited efforts were made for compilation and curation of the available karyological data in a digital form. ‘Fish Karyome’ database was the preliminary attempt to compile and digitize the available karyological information on finfishes belonging to the Indian subcontinent. But the database had limitations since it covered data only on Indian finfishes with limited search options. Perceiving the feedbacks from the users and its utility in fish cytogenetic studies, the Fish Karyome database was upgraded by applying Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP (pre hypertext processor) (LAMP) technologies. In the present version, the scope of the system was increased by compiling and curating the available chromosomal information over the globe on fishes and other aquatic organisms, such as echinoderms, molluscs and arthropods, especially of aquaculture importance. Thus, Fish Karyome version 2.1 presently covers 866 chromosomal records for 726 species supported with 253 published articles and the information is being updated regularly. The database provides information on chromosome number and morphology, sex chromosomes, chromosome banding, molecular cytogenetic markers, etc. supported by fish and karyotype images through interactive tools. It also enables the users to browse and view chromosomal information based on habitat, family, conservation status and chromosome number. The system also displays chromosome number in model organisms, protocol for chromosome preparation and allied techniques and glossary of cytogenetic terms. A data submission facility has also been provided through data submission panel. The database can serve as a unique and useful resource for cytogenetic characterization, sex determination, chromosomal mapping, cytotaxonomy, karyo-evolution and systematics of fishes.Database URL: http://mail.nbfgr.res.in/Fish_Karyome

Mitochondrial genome sequences have been widely used for evolutionary and phylogenetic studies. Among vertebrates, fish are an important, diverse group, and their mitogenome sequences are growing rapidly in public repositories. To facilitate mitochondrial genome analysis and to explore the valuable genetic information, we developed the Fish Mitogenome Resource (FMiR) database to provide a workbench for mitogenome annotation, species identification and microsatellite marker mining. The microsatellites are also known as simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and used as molecular markers in studies on population genetics, gene duplication and marker assisted selection. Here, easy-to-use tools have been implemented for mining SSRs and for designing primers to identify species/habitat specific markers. In addition, FMiR can analyze complete or partial mitochondrial genome sequence to identify species and to deduce relational distances among sequences across species. The database presently contains curated mitochondrial genomes from 1302 fish species belonging to 297 families and 47 orders reported from saltwater and freshwater ecosystems. In addition, the database covers information on fish species such as conservation status, ecosystem, family, distribution and occurrence downloaded from the FishBase and IUCN Red List databases. Those fish information have been used to browse mitogenome information for the species belonging to a particular category. The database is scalable in terms of content and inclusion of other analytical modules. The FMiR is running under Linux operating platform on high performance server accessible at URL http://mail.nbfgr.res.in/fmir.

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‘Fish Karyome’, a database on karyological information of Indian fishes have been developed that serves as central source for karyotype data about Indian fishes compiled from the published literature. Fish Karyome has been intended to serve as a liaison tool for the researchers and contains karyological information about 171 out of 2438 finfish species reported in India and is publically available via World Wide Web. The database provides information on chromosome number, morphology, sex chromosomes, karyotype formula and cytogenetic markers etc. Additionally, it also provides the phenotypic information that includes species name, its classification, and locality of sample collection, common name, local name, sex, geographical distribution, and IUCN Red list status. Besides, fish and karyotype images, references for 171 finfish species have been included in the database. Fish Karyome has been developed using SQL Server 2008, a relational database management system, Microsoft's ASP.NET-2008 and Macromedia's FLASH Technology under Windows 7 operating environment. The system also enables users to input new information and images into the database, search and view the information and images of interest using various search options. Fish Karyome has wide range of applications in species characterization and identification, sex determination, chromosomal mapping, karyo-evolution and systematics of fishes.