HGD-Chn: The Database of Genome Diversity and Variation for Chinese Populations

Abstract

The Database of Genome Diversity and Variation for Chinese Populations is toward a more efficient utilization and sharing of the valuable yet diminishing genetic resources in China (including sample information of healthy populations, healthy pedigrees, disease population and disease pedigrees; genomic diversity data; disease-related allelic and haplotype data). Organization of the database can be divided into two parts: (1) Genetic resources of healthy people – Organizing genetic resources of healthy people. A variety of genetic markers (VNTR, STR, SNP, HLA, and enzyme markers, etc.) are chosen for their diversity among populations, with their distribution among different ethnic groups in China stored in the form of allelic frequency. A further analysis as well as an overall description of the Chinese population genetic structure is also being made possible. (2) Disease genetic resources – Four categories are mainly concerned: chromosomal diseases, monogenic diseases, polygenic diseases, and birth defects. For each kind of disease, the basic introduction and description, sample information, and allelic data of related gene are involved. Aside from research-oriented information, introductory courses oriented at general public covering fields of genomic diversity and variation, the related experimental techniques, standards and specifications could also be accessed in our website. Further more, flexible query and submit system with user-friendly interfaces are also integrated in our website to simplify the process of user-query and administrators’ database maintenance work. Online data analyzing and managing tools are developed using bioinformatics algorithm and programming language for a better interpretation of the biological data.