BIODEGRADATIVE
     STRAIN
         DATABASE 
This survey is provided to better estimate the value to the microbiological community of developing this database and to better satisfy user needs. Thank you for taking time to respond to our questions.

BSD User Survey

Database Content

1. A number of data types have been proposed for inclusion in the database. Considering initial database development resources will be limited, on a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being most valuable), how would you rank the usefulness of including each of the following data types?

A. Genus & species H. Phylogenetic trees
B. Strain designation I. Gene transfer vectors
C. Catabolic substrate(s) J. Strain Basonyms (former organism name)
D. References K. rRNA GenBank accession(s)
E. Source (of isolation) L. Culture collection accession(s)
F. Pathogenicity M. Antibiotic susceptibility data
G. Catalytic gene & enzyme links N. Key phenotypic information

2. What other type(s) of data would be valuable to include in the database?

Data Searching and Web Interface

1. Please answer the following statement to help us design a useful database interface. If available, I would search the data by:

Often Sometimes Rarely
Strain Designation
Genus & species
Catabolic substrate(s)
Phylogenetic group
Culture collection accession
GenBank accession
Enzyme
Gene
Operon
Source (of isolation)
Phenotypic data
Author
Journal
Other:
Other:

2. What areas of your research or teaching would be facilitated by this database?

In addition to hypertext links to various strain data, the database could eventually allow cross-referencing of data to query the database to search for patterns of degradation (An example might be to look for the phylogenetic distribution of a particular trait or degradative pathway).

3. Give an example(s) of questions you might like to address that would be facilitated by such a database.

4. Please provide any other comments or questions you may have about utilizing the data or about website organization.

User-supplied Data

1. We would like to provide users with a mechanism to contribute new, missing and corrected data. Please rank, 1 to 4, how you would most likely submit data.

on-line submission form
FTP
email
non-electronic submission (mail, fax)

2. Accepting user-submitted data raises the question of whether or not to accept non-reviewed data. How would you suggest such data be handled?

3. It has been suggested that journal editors require authors to submit the relevant strain data to a database concurrent with publication, similar to the requirement to submit nucleic acid sequences to GenBank. Would you be in favor of such a requirement? Comments?

Demographic Information

1. Please check your primary institution affiliation:
A. Government B. Academic C. Industry D. Medicine
E. Other:

2. Please check your primary job-related activity:

A. Research B. Teaching C. Consulting

3. Please check your highest degree achieved:

A. Bachelors B. Masters C. Ph.D. D.Other:

4. Please choose your primary (P) and secondary (S) fields from these subject areas:

Microbiology Molecular Biology Medicine/dentistry/VetMed
Bioinformatics Microbial Ecology Biotechnology
Agriculture Biochemistry EnvironSci/Engr.
Other:

5. As an aid to providing platform compatability, please list the number of machines you have available to you to access the database.

Unix Linux Macintosh Windows Other:

Which of these would you most likely use?

Other comments or suggestions regarding computer platforms:

6. What is the speed of your internet connection?

<14.4 kbps 14.4 kbps 28.8 kbps 33.6 kbps 56 kbps
1 Mbps 10 Mbps T1 T3

(Optional) if you would like to be included in our database mailing list, please provide the following information.

Name:
Institution:
Street:
City, State: Zip Code:
Phone: Fax:
Email:

Any questions or comments about this submission form or the BSD can be emailed to Dr. John Urbance at urbance@psssun.pss.msu.edu.