Help:Search

How to search for a basic part

(1) If you know the part number (e.g., BBa_J45001), simply type the unique characters after the underscore (J45001 in this case) into the "jump to part" search box under the Catalog icon on any Registry page. This immediately takes you to the Main Page for the part.

(2) If you know the name of the part (e.g., autoinducer synthetase), type this into the "Text Search" box below. For autoinducer synthetase, at least seven hits will be displayed, from which you can select those of interest and click on their part numbers to go to the corresponding Main Pages.

(3) If you know the broad category of the part you need, but not its exact name or part number, use the icons on the "Browse Part Types" page. Note that there are six categories of "parts" on this page: Systems, Devices, Parts, Chassis, Vectors and Other. Basic parts are under the heading Parts. [Note that the term "part" has two usages, reflecting the hierarchical classification scheme used by the Registry. In the broad definition, a "part" is a modular component of a synthetic-biology construct. A basic part comprises an indivisible functional unit (such as a protein-coding sequence or a terminator sequence). A composite part has multiple basic parts within it -- for example, BBa_I13521 has five components, each of which is a basic part.]

Click on the icon corresponding to the type of basic part that you need. This will take you to an intermediate page in some cases (such as "Protein Coding") with links to sub-categories. Otherwise the link goes directly to a page with tables of the parts in that category. Depending on the type of part, the tables provide various kinds of information, always including a brief description and the total length of the part (in base pairs). Clicking on the part number in the table takes you directly to the Main Page for that part. Parts listed in these primary tables all have DNA available in the Registry, and those that have a "W" beside their entry have been shown to work in at least one system.

Note that at the tops of the main tables for parts there are a clickable links entitled "Show __ more parts" (where the blanks correspond to numbers from 0 to hundreds). The links will take you to subsidiary tables of parts in various stages of design and development, usually with the planned DNA sequence, but without availability of the physical DNA or evidence for workability.

How to search for a composite part

The same methods described above in (1)-(3) can also be used to search for devices and systems. These always have multiple basic parts and that allows another approach --

(4) If you want a composite part that contains a particular basic part, such as cI repressor from phage lambda, you can enter the part number into the Superpart Search box below. In the case of that example, the search returns more than 300 parts, of which more than 60 are available in the Registry!

How to find alternative ways to construct a composite part

(5) If you have a composite part that poses some difficulty in assembly or function you can examine alternatives by using the Subpart Search box below. Note the link above the box -- it displays a good example of the power of such a search.