ArrayExpress update - from bulk to single-cell expression data

Nucleic Acids Res. 2019 Jan 8;47(D1):D711-D715. doi: 10.1093/nar/gky964.

Abstract

ArrayExpress (https://www.ebi.ac.uk/arrayexpress) is an archive of functional genomics data from a variety of technologies assaying functional modalities of a genome, such as gene expression or promoter occupancy. The number of experiments based on sequencing technologies, in particular RNA-seq experiments, has been increasing over the last few years and submissions of sequencing data have overtaken microarray experiments in the last 12 months. Additionally, there is a significant increase in experiments investigating single cells, rather than bulk samples, known as single-cell RNA-seq. To accommodate these trends, we have substantially changed our submission tool Annotare which, along with raw and processed data, collects all metadata necessary to interpret these experiments. Selected datasets are re-processed and loaded into our sister resource, the value-added Expression Atlas (and its component Single Cell Expression Atlas), which not only enables users to interpret the data easily but also serves as a test for data quality. With an increasing number of studies that combine different assay modalities (multi-omics experiments), a new more general archival resource the BioStudies Database has been developed, which will eventually supersede ArrayExpress. Data submissions will continue unchanged; all existing ArrayExpress data will be incorporated into BioStudies and the existing accession numbers and application programming interfaces will be maintained.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Databases, Genetic
  • Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis / methods*
  • RNA-Seq / methods
  • Single-Cell Analysis / methods*
  • Software*