WebWise: Guide to The Institute for Genomic Research Web Site

This installment of the WebWise series reviews the final web site included in the scope of this series, namely The Institute for Genomic Research (TIGR; http://www.tigr.org/). TIGR, a nonprofit private research institute that was headed by Craig Venter until recently and is now headed by Claire Fraser, has made a significant contribution toward sequencing several genomes. This review focuses on the data, tools, and other resources currently available on this web site that pertain to the Human Genome Project (HGP). The human genome sequencing effort at TIGR has been impacted by some recent developments. Namely, the recent formation of Celera (http://www.celera.com/), a private-sector high-throughput shotgun sequencing facility headed by Craig Venter, shifts the human genome sequencing effort from TIGR to Celera. Furthermore, as reported in the News section of Science, TIGR was not among the U.S. HGP groups selected for continued funding by the National Institutes of Health (Pennisi 1998). Hence, the TIGR human genome sequencing effort will start to wind down; clone sequencing already in progress will be completed, but sequencing currently in early phases of the production pipeline will likely not be completed (M. Adams, pers. comm.). Some other HGP-related projects at TIGR, such as the BAC-end sequencing effort, retain Department of Energy (DOE) funding and will continue. Furthermore, the data, tools, and resources currently available on TIGR’s web site will be maintained for the foreseeable future.

The site map (Fig. 1) is intended to provide a simple road map to data and tools pages. Therefore, it does not include all of the links provided on the TIGR site map; redundant links, links to other genomes, as well as some groupings of related links are depicted as a single link or are omitted from the site map. The main features of this web site, as well …