The Variable Number Tandem Repeat Locus Database (VNTRDB)

Variable number tandem repeats (VNTRs) are one kind of DNA markers that have been widely used in molecular typing of bacteria. For finding potentially polymorphic tandem repeats, more genome sequences of a bacterial species should be compared. Till now, however, only 357 bacterial genome sequences are fully sequenced. Many of these bacterial species merely one strain has been sequenced. Therefore, all fully sequenced bacteria of a same genus are usually compared together to find the polymorphic potency of tandem repeats. It means that if the more bacteria or sequences are compared, the more polymorphic tandem repeats will be truly identified. Here, a variable number tandem repeat locus database (VNTRDB) was constructed to microbiologists to meet the requirements of epidemiological studies. All potentially polymorphic tandem repeats in this database are found by comparing homologous tandem repeat loci between different bacteria of a same genus or among different genera. Currently, we provide two kinds of tandem repeats for query in the VNTRDB, i.e., polymorphic TRs and putatively unique TRs. These two query pages contain their own setting parameters for searching common polymorphic tandem repeats or unique tandem repeats in selected bacteria. Additionally, a visualization tool is accompanied with this database to observe sequence differences between bacterial strains and to avoid false positive records result from misestimating copy number and locus length of tandem repeats. This VNTRDB is an open resource and can be freely accessed without any restriction. The data in it will be updated or added continuously when new bacterial genome sequences are fully sequenced.

The data will be updated or added persistently when new genomes are compared.

You can start query now.  Enter VNTRDB in Taiwan or UK.