Further GenBank Complaints

[Tom Schneider]

Now that you all think GenBank is wonderful and all problems are solved
(or about to be solved with the new transition), I would like to point out
a problem I just came across.  Two entries contain binding sites for Gal4,
K02115 has 

     misc_binding    368..384
                     /note="binding site for GAL4 (positive control  protein)

M81879 has

     misc_feature    217..233
                     /note="GAL4 site"

This means that no program can treat these the same way.  Are there no rules on
how to enter things in GenBank?  Why don't these things have NAMES?   You can't
parse notes.  (That is, no program can be smart enough to read these notes and
automatically extract the sites.)  If this kind of problem continues to be
ignored, there will be a terrible price to pay later on!

  Tom Schneider
  National Cancer Institute
  Laboratory of Mathematical Biology
  Frederick, Maryland  21702-1201
  toms at ncifcrf.gov