We often wonder what is in the top chromatin researchers iPod playlists. What gets them through those late night, seemingly countless ChIP assays. Although we hope Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby,” or Young MC’s “Bust a Move,” are represented, we know each of us has our own Greatest Hits.
Recently, a team at Johns Hopkins stepped up and created a must have for chromatin researchers looking to cut up the rug in the lab with HistoneHits (http://histonehits.org), a compilation of phenotypes for systematic collections of histone mutants.
The slick web interface provides cool graphics and tees up useful phenotypical information for histone mutants including sequences, structures, post-translational modifications, and evolutionary conservation.
If that’s not enough to get you out of your chair, all the data sets are freely available for download. We’re doing backspins and the Worm after our first test drive. See for yourself at Genome Research, February 2009.