BioTechniquesVol. 36, No. 5 WebWatchOpen AccessWebWatchKevin AhernKevin AhernSearch for more papers by this authorPublished Online:6 Jun 2018https://doi.org/10.2144/04365WW01AboutSectionsPDF/EPUB ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail Homes on the BiomesClose your eyes for a moment and imagine a journey to the extremes of the earth, from the deepest ocean to the driest desert. Stop briefly to shiver in the arctic tundra, marvel at the grandeur of a tropical forest, and then gape at the sprawling, gently flowing grasslands that cover the plains. Got it? Now open wide and view the real thing at the interesting and informative World of Biomes site. While there, you'll learn what makes each of these habitats unique. You'll see vistas of these beautiful regions. Most importantly, you'll learn about the importance of these ecosystems to all life on earth and be inspired to preserve them and the species within them.With permission University of California Museum of PaleontologyTundrahttp://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/glossary/gloss5/biome/French CollectionThe immune system proteins known as the immunoglobulins represent a tremendously diverse collection of amino acid sequences. An essential web site on the topic needs to be as deep in information content, and fortunately, the French IMmunoGeneTics (IMGT) site is up to the challenge. Housing 8000 searchable web pages, a 3-D structural database with over 725 entries, and sequence databases with over 80,000 entries on immunoglobulins and T cell receptors, IMGT is une grande entreprise. The site's strengths are more than just collections of information, however, with tools for sequence alignments, 3-D structural queries, and junction analysis, to name a few.http://imgt.cines.fr/Federal ReserveWith a name derived from its GenBank® cousin, GelBank is a federally funded “savings institution” that draws sufficient interest and has enough reserves to make even Alan Greenspan sit up and take notice. GelBank's currency, however, is measured not in dollars or securities, but in information specifically relating to proteomics. The site's collection of 2-D gel profiles provided by users is as good as gold, allowing GelBank to provide information about proteomes of the species whose genomic sequences are known. Visitors to the site can retrieve protein sequences by molecular weight, isoelectric point, species, or by sequence fragment. It pays to be judicious with searches, though. One unrestricted search of the database returned over 400,000 hits. Registered users (free with a valid e-mail address) can upload gel images, retrieve existing images, and collect images, information, and animations in a novel “Bio-Bag” for later use.With permission Argonne National Laboratory2-D gel of urea-denatured, whole-cell extract of exponential phaseMethano-coccus jannaschii.http://gelbank.anl.gov/Moving TargetsUsing ATP energy to tiptoe the tightropes of cellular microtubules, the motor protein family known as the kinesins is a group of unusual molecular moving vans, lugging cargo from one site to another within cells. As cell biologists are well aware, there is a lot of transport activity in mitosis and meiosis. Kinesin motors appear to play a major role in these processes, with functions in establishing spindle bipolarity, positioning chromosomes on the metaphase plate, and maintaining forces in the spindle. The Kinesin Home Page provides visitors with useful back-ground material about these fascinating proteins, their phylogenetic families, and crystal structure information. There's even a collection of informative movies showing kinesins in action.http://www.proweb.org/kinesin/Tiny DancersSomeone who had never seen a ballet would have a hard time understanding its beauty and fluidity by looking at still pictures of the dancers going through their steps. At the atomic level, too, complex molecular “dances” that occur in biochemical processes, such as protein folding and receptor-ligand binding, can only be fully appreciated when viewed in motion. The Database of Simulated Molecular Motions (DSMM) tackles these challenging problems in miniature in a creative and visual way, with dozens of movies of biomolecules in action. Watch, for example, the theoretical folding path of apomyoglobin or the motion of cholesterol in a lipid bilayer as the temperature changes. All of the popular formats, including Quick-Time, MPEG, AVI, and animated GIF are supported, providing viewing opportunities for almost everyone.http://projects.villa-bosch.de/mcm/database/dsmmFiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Vol. 36, No. 5 Follow us on social media for the latest updates Metrics Downloaded 99 times History Published online 6 June 2018 Published in print May 2004 Information© 2004 Author(s)PDF download