ZFARED: A Database of the Antioxidant Response Elements in Zebrafish

Background: Antioxidant Response Elements (ARE) play a key role in the expression of Nrf2 target genes by regulating the Keap1-Nrf2-ARE pathway, which offers protection against toxic agents and oxidative stress-induced diseases. Objective: To develop a database of putative AREs for all the genes in the zebrafish genome. This database will be helpful for researchers to investigate Nrf2 regulatory mechanisms in detail. Methods: To facilitate researchers functionally characterize zebrafish AREs, we have developed a database of AREs, Zebrafish Antioxidant Response Element Database (ZFARED), for all the protein-coding genes including antioxidant and mitochondrial genes in the zebrafish genome. The front end of the database was developed using HTML, JavaScript, and CSS and tested in different browsers. The back end of the database was developed using Perl scripts and Perl-CGI and Perl- DBI modules. Results: ZFARED is the first database on the AREs in zebrafish, which facilitates fast and efficient searching of AREs. AREs were identified using the in-house developed Perl algorithms and the database was developed using HTML, JavaScript, and Perl-CGI scripts. From this database, researchers can access the AREs based on chromosome number (1 to 25 and M for mitochondria), strand (positive or negative), ARE pattern and keywords. Users can also specify the size of the upstream/promoter regions (5 to 30 kb) from transcription start site to access the AREs located in those specific regions. Conclusion: ZFARED will be useful in the investigation of the Keap1-Nrf2-ARE pathway and its gene regulation. ZFARED is freely available at http://zfared.buc.edu.in/.