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Original Research ARTICLE

This article is part of a Research Topic

NeuronBank: a tool for cataloging neuronal circuitry

Paul S. Katz¹*, Robert Calin-Jageman^1,2, Akshaye Dhawan³, Chad Frederick³, Shuman Guo³, Rasanjalee Dissanayaka³, Naveen Hiremath³, Wenjun Ma³, Xiuyn Shen³, Hsui C. Wang³, Hong Yang³, Sushil Prasad³, Rajshekhar Sunderraman³ and Ying Zhu³

Neuroscience Institute, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA

Department of Pyschology, Dominican University, River Forest, IL, USA

Department of Computer Science, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA

The basic unit of any nervous system is the neuron. Therefore, understanding the operation of nervous systems ultimately requires an inventory of their constituent neurons and synaptic connectivity, which form neural circuits. The presence of uniquely identifiable neurons or classes of neurons in many invertebrates has facilitated the construction of cellular-level connectivity diagrams that can be generalized across individuals within a species. Homologous neurons can also be recognized across species. Here we describe NeuronBank.org, a web-based tool that we are developing for cataloging, searching, and analyzing neuronal circuitry within and across species. Information from a single species is represented in an individual branch of NeuronBank. Users can search within a branch or perform queries across branches to look for similarities in neuronal circuits across species. The branches allow for an extensible ontology so that additional characteristics can be added as knowledge grows. Each entry in NeuronBank generates a unique accession ID, allowing it to be easily cited. There is also an automatic link to a Wiki page allowing an encyclopedic explanation of the entry. All of the 44 previously published neurons plus one previously unpublished neuron from the mollusc, Tritonia diomedea, have been entered into a branch of NeuronBank as have 4 previously published neurons from the mollusc, Melibe leonina. The ability to organize information about neuronal circuits will make this information more accessible, ultimately aiding research on these important models.

Keywords:

neuroinformatics, identified neurons, invertebrate, mollusc, neuromics, database

Citation:

Katz PS, Calin-Jageman R, Dhawan A, Frederick C, Guo S, Dissanayaka R, Hiremath N, Ma W, Shen X, Wang HC, Yang H, Prasad S, Sunderraman R and Zhu Y. (2010) NeuronBank: a tool for cataloging neuronal circuitry. Front. Syst. Neurosci. 4:9. doi: 10.3389/fnsys.2010.00009

Received:

14 November 2009;

Paper pending published:

27 February 2010;

Accepted:

31 March 2010;

Published online:

19 April 2010.

Edited by:

Randolf Menzel, Freie Universiät Berlin, Germany

Reviewed by:

Gwen Jacobs, Montana State University, USA
Maryann E. Martone, University of California San Diego, USA

© 2009 Katz, Calin-Jageman, Dhawan, Frederick, Guo, Dissanayaka, Hiremath, Ma, Shen, Wang, Yang, Prasad, Sunderraman and Zhu. This is an open-access publication subject to an exclusive license agreement between the authors and the Frontiers Research Foundation, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original authors and source are credited.

*Correspondence:

Paul S. Katz, Neuroscience Institute, Georgia State University, P.O. Box 5030, Atlanta, GA 30302-5030, USA. e-mail: pkatz@gsu.edu