Reactome – a curated knowledgebase of biological pathways: megakaryocytes and platelets

Abstract

The platelet field is undergoing a radical transformation from reductionist simplification to large scale integration. Following the era of simplification whereby biological processes were dissected at the molecular and atomic level, new technologies have now generated an overwhelming flow of information that can only be comprehended in an integrated approach. High throughput analyses of transcription and translation in megakaryocytes and platelets, individual analyses of membranes and secretory granules, the clustering of pathways for platelet activation and inhibition in signalosomes all add to a complexity that requires platforms for knowledge accumulation. Here we introduce Reactome, a curated knowledgebase of biological pathways with extensive coverage of pathways relevant to megakaryocytes, platelets and haemostasis. This resource is compared with other data resources for platelets, e.g. the Platelet Web.