Help:Search

Revision as of 00:24, 10 June 2009 by Rshetty (Talk | contribs) (→‎How to search for a basic part)

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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 search box at the top right corner of the Registry and hit enter (or click Go). 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. You may want to try a few variants of the part name, e.g., GFP; green fluorescent protein, etc.
  3. If you know the type or category of the part you need, but not its exact name or part number, use the Part and device catalog. Click on the icon corresponding to the type of part or device that you need. This will take you to the catalog page for that part or device class with links to different sub-classes and tables for different part groups. Depending on the type of part, the tables provide various kinds of information, 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 either have DNA available in the Registry or are very short and can be easily constructed from oligo's. Those that have a green "W" beside their entry have been shown to work in at least one system.

How to search for a composite part

The same methods described above in (1)-(3) can also be used to search for composite parts, devices and systems. Note however, that composite parts, devices and systems can have multiple basic parts associated with them. Thus, there are another way to search for them.

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. In the case of that BBa_C0051, the search returns more than 300 parts, of which more than 60 are available in the Registry!

How to find previously assembled parts that will aid in constructing a composite part

If you have a composite part that you wish to assemble, use the Subpart Search to find parts in the Registry that may save you time during assembly. Check out the Example to get an idea for the power of this type of search.