Release 4 of the FunCoup database of functional coupling networks

A new version of the FunCoup database (http://FunCoup.sbc.su.se) has been released by a research team led by Erik Sonnhammer (Stockholm University/SciLifeLab). The database has been extended with networks inferred for six new species and for the first time also includes bacteria. To visualize subnetworks from queries, a new graphical network viewer is in place which is supported on almost any platform. For species previously in FunCoup, new data and datatypes have been added to improve quality and coverage.

A manuscript published in Nucleic Acids Research describes the new release. FunCoup is a database of functional couplings, or functional associations, between genes. Identifying these functional couplings is an important step in the understanding of higher level mechanisms performed by complex cellular processes. FunCoup 4 contains networks for human and 16 model organisms. The newly addes species are S. pombe, P. falciparum, B. taurus (cow), O. sativa (rice), E. Coli, and B. subtilis. The human network currently consists of 18355 genes/proteins connected to each other by 6.5 million links.