ABSTRACT
In a recent report entitled Mapping and Sequencing the Human Genome the National Research Council raised many issues about the proposed genome project. This chapter considers particular relevance to the work in progress at BIONET. The BIONET National Computer Resource for Molecular Biology has grown over the past five years to serve a community of almost 900 laboratories worldwide. Because of the need to service large numbers of geographically dispersed users who require access to genetic sequence data, BIONET has undertaken many initiatives in the area of computer networking and communications. BIONET has added an interface that allows a user on any accessible network to submit a query sequence by electronic mail to the BIONET computer and have the specified search performed automatically. The mail interface can also be modified to handle other types of data processing requests. Access to FASTA-MAIL is freely available for non-profit research.
