Mobile Agent System for Animal Genome Database
Yasuhiko Wada 1
Hirohisa Kishino 2
ywada@niai.affrc.go.jp kishino@waka.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Nobuhisa Kashiwagi 3
Hiroshi Yasue 1
kasiwagi@ism.ac.jp

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hyasue@niai.affrc.go.jp

Department of Animal Breeding and Genetics, National Institute of Animal Industry,2 Ikenodai, Kukisaki-machi, Inashiki-gun, Ibaraki 305-0901, Japan.
The Institute of Statistical Mathematics, 4-6-7 Minami azabu, Minato-ku, Tokyo 1068569, Japan.
Laboratory of Statistics, Department of Advanced Social and International Studies,
University of Tokyo, 3-8-1 Komaba, Meguro-ku Tokyo 153-8902, Japan.

1Introduction

It is important to develop the genome database for searching the genetic regions or genes responsible for economic traits. We have developed an animal genome database and its search system(http://ws4.niai.a rc.go.jp/) [2] and a client-server system name gRanch [3] in order to query theanimal genome database and to analyse the genetic linkage. However, there are some restrictions of
WWW with client software and client machine is limited to the UNIX machine as for gRanch. In
the present study, we have developed a mobile agent system for animal genome database in order tosolve these problems. The system is written by Java language and the client program is translated tothe binary program for Microsoft Windows95. This system has the function to predict corresponding
chromosome in other animals' genomes, correspondence between the linkage and cytogenetic map [4]and viewer for DNA sequences.
2System overview

The client connects with the certi cation server when it is invoked and user ID, password and IP
address of the client are checked. Then, the menu agent is downloaded from the agent server tothe client. All agents are stored in the agent server and are written by Java language. The agent istransferred if necessary between the agent server and the client, the query is retrieved on the server side,and the results is graphically displayed on the client side (Fig. 1). Since the agent including programand data is compressed when moving through the network, the communication time is shortenedcompared with the system based on Java applet. The time which hangs to the start and the displayof graphic images in the client is also reduced using the translated binary program. The agents whobelong to the same user communicate with each other on the client, exchange information, draw theintention of the user, and adjust the display of the results.
3

Prediction of chromosome in other animal's genome

We consider two genes on the same chromosome of d CM or less in the linkage map of MGD database.
The probability(p(d)) that the two genes exist on the same chromosome of another species is estimatedusing information of the comparative mapping. The posterior probability that interesting gene exists
in i chromosome of another species is estimated using the following formula, 1p(d1 )(1 0 p(d1 ))10 1 p(d2 ) 2 (1 0 p(d2 ))10 2
P (ijd1 ; d2 ; j1 ; j2 ) =M
 1p(d1 )(1 0 p(d1 ))10 1 p(d2 ) 2 (1 0 p(d2 ))10 2

P =1
ki;ji;jk;ji;jk;j220i;jk;jk;jRegisterserverAgent serversearchinvokeID
password
move

move
move

clone

display

Client (windows95)

Figure 1: System overview.
where d1 (d2 ) is the distance between the interesting gene and the two nearest genes on the mouse
chromosome, j1 (j2 ) is the chromosome in which the two genes exist on the genome of another species.
4Viewer for DNA sequences

User can also search an entry of DNA database and display the DNA sequences and their related
information of some mammals in this system. One dimension structure of the DNA sequence named
exon or intron is classi ed and displayed by a di erent color.
Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the ISM Cooperative Research Program (10-ISM-CRP-53). This system
is based on the AgentSpace (http://islab.is.ocha.ac.jp/agent/) [1].
References[1] Satoh, I., A Higher Order Mobile Agent System, Workshop on Mobile Object Systems, Brussels,July, 1998.
[2] Wada, Y. and Yasue, H., Development of an animal genome database, CABIOS, 12 (3): 231{235,1996.
[3] Wada, Y., Inoue, K., Ohga, K. and Yasue, H., Software tool for gene mapping: gRanch, CABIOS,
13 (3): 323{324, 1997.
[4] Wada, Y. and Yasue, H., Visualization of gene mapping information using Java applet, Jpn. J.
Comp. Sci., 4 (2): 111{115, 1997.

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