SORTEZ: a relational translator for NCBI's ASN.1 database.

The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) has created a database collection that includes several protein and nucleic acid sequence databases, a biosequence-specific subset of MEDLINE, as well as value-added information such as links between similar sequences. Information in the NCBI database is modeled in Abstract Syntax Notation 1 (ASN.1) an Open Systems Interconnection protocol designed for the purpose of exchanging structured data between software applications rather than as a data model for database systems. While the NCBI database is distributed with an easy-to-use information retrieval system, ENTREZ, the ASN.1 data model currently lacks an ad hoc query language for general-purpose data access. For that reason, we have developed a software package, SORTEZ, that transforms the ASN.1 database (or other databases with nested data structures) to a relational data model and subsequently to a relational database management system (Sybase) where information can be accessed through the relational query language, SQL. Because the need to transform data from one data model and schema to another arises naturally in several important contexts, including efficient execution of specific applications, access to multiple databases and adaptation to database evolution this work also serves as a practical study of the issues involved in the various stages of database transformation. We show that transformation from the ASN.1 data model to a relational data model can be largely automated, but that schema transformation and data conversion require considerable domain expertise and would greatly benefit from additional support tools.