Welcome to PossumBase

As part of the National Research Centre for Possum Biocontrol (NRCPB) PossumBase has been created to aid research into the brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula). It will be a valuable resource for the development of biological controls for possums, especially in the identification of new or unique gene products that affect possum physiology (e.g. reproduction, immunology). Access is free for the entire research community.

Content

AgResearch created a database of 150,000 expressed sequence tags (ESTs) for the Brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula). The ESTs stem from 8 different libraries:

• Ovarian pooled various ovarian tissue and cycle-stages
• Immune
• Gut small/large intestine, Peyers patch
• Kidney
• Liver
• Reproductive tract (female)
• Brain/Pituitary
• Embryonic/developmental

Low quality sequence ends have been removed as have vector sequences. Subsequently ESTs were clustered (grouped) into contigs and mapped (compared) against the genomic sequence of the closest available relative, the gray short-tailed opossum Monodelphis domestica.

Access

Annotated ESTs can be freely accessed in the following ways:

• Retrieve sequence, microarray and other records by id or keyword using the search fields on the main page (above). Select a record type and click the examples link for example searches for that type
• for visual analysis/inspection go to the Tools | GBrowse section.
• for sequence comparison (BLAST) go to the Tools | AgResearch BLAST section.
• for download go to the Tools | Data Downloads section.