As micronutrients act through a chain or network of processes (absorption, distribution, metabolism,e xcretion, transport, binding and intracellular efficacy), their activity can best be visualized  by  a schematic representations of these activities. A number of construction platforms are available this purpose, like the commercial Genego software.

We have chosen to use the open source platform pathway wiki, produced by the Bigcat group in Maastricht, The Netherlands. This platform also contains pathvisio and is a collaboration with the San Franscco based GenMAPP group, a world standard in open source pathway visualisation.
In this wiki environment, a micronutrient community portal has been created, from where all visualisation activities are accessed.
 

As example, the prostaglandin biosynthesis and regualtion network is visualised on the right. The "life" version will have clickable entities directly leading to the genetic variants of the enzyme.  The second part of the visualisating regards the browser at individual gene level. This part is not specific for the micronutrient genomics project and is (will be) implemented by the mainstream genetics projects. An example is the browser developed at the clinalcal genetics dept of Leiden University.

Eventually, a flexible and editable browser with both a wiki-editable and a permanent interface will be implemented.

Attachments
	HM_MutationUpdate_Guidelines_2008.doc	37 KB
	VariVis BMC Bioinformatics 2008 vol 9 pg206.pdf	246 KB