A modular database architecture enabled to comparative sequence analysis

The beginning of post-genomic era is characterized by a rising numbers of public collected genomes. The evolutionary relationship among these genomes may be caught by means of the comparative analysis of sequences, in order to identify both homologous and non-coding functional elements. In this paper we report on the on-going BIOBITS project. It is focused on studies concerning the bacterial endosymbionts, since they offer an excellent model to investigate important biological events, such as organelle evolution, genome reduction, and transfer of genetic information among host lineages. The BIOBITS goal is two-side: on the one hand, it pursues a logical data representation of genomic and proteomic components. On the other hand, it aims at the development of software modules allowing the user to retrieve and analyze data in a flexible way.