An article on the IDeA-funded regional SkateBase project was recently posted with open source publisher F1000 Research (http://f1000research.com/articles/3-191/v1).
In this study, titled SkateBase, an elasmobranch genome project and collection of molecular resources for chondrichthyan fishes, the group summarizes available data for chondrichthyes and describe resources for one of the largest projects to characterize one of these fish, Leucoraja erinacea, the little skate. SkateBase (http://skatebase.org) serves as the skate genome project portal linking data, research tools, and teaching resources. In addition to the skate genome data, SkateBase includes transcriptome data for three chondrichthyans generated by Maine INBRE. These data have been used in at least 20 publications including the journals Science and Nature. The paper is featured in the Elasmobranch Biology and Conservation Collection (http://f1000research.com/article-collections/elasmobranch) created by the journal and expands awareness of these valuable sequence resources in the research community.Maine INBRE Bioinformatics Core Director Ben King is an author on the paper together with colleagues in Delaware and Vermont who are all members of the North East Bioinformatics Collaborative, an organization of INBRE Bioinformatics Cores in the northeast region. The North East Bioinformatics Collaborative of the North East Cyberinfrastructure Consortium, which includes IDeA programs from Maine, Delaware, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont, has successfully built and improved regional cyberinfrastructure and has initiated cyber-enabled research and training by leveraging NIH, NSF and other Federal funding.