Since we reported a BLAST server for the mollusk in 2004, no work has reported the usability or modification of the server. To improve its usability, the BLAST server for the mollusk has been updated as version II (http://www.malacol.or.kr/blast) in the present study. The database was constructed by using the Intel server Platform ZSS130 dual Xeon 3.20 GHz CPU and Linux CentOS system and with NCBI WebBLAST package. We downloaded the mollusk nucleotide, amino acid, EST, GSS and mitochondrial genome sequences which can be opened through NCBI web BLAST and used them to build up the database. The updated database consists of 520,977 nucleotide sequences, 229,857 amino acid sequences, 586,498 EST sequences, 23,112 GSS and 565 mitochondrial genome sequences. Total database size is 1.2 GB. Furthermore, we have added repeat sequences, Escherichia coli sequences and vector sequences to facilitate data validation. The newly updated BLAST server for the mollusk will be useful for many malacological researchers as it will save time to identify and study various molluscan genes.
