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MX Database
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MX (MatriX) •web-based content management system for evolutionary systematists, particularly those working on descriptive taxonomy. •used to manage morphological matrices, specimen and sequence data, taxonomic descriptions, images, collecting events, taxonomic hierarchies and more. The MX system, developed by Matt Yoder and Krishna Dole as part of the Wharton and Cognato PEETs at Texas A&M University, is an open source (MySQL, Apache, Ruby on Rails), collaborative, content management system for systematic biologists. MX provides users with a full-featured environment for the coding, storage, manipulation and use of all types of taxonomic data including morphological character data, sequence data, label data and bibliographic references (http://hymenoptera.tamu.edu/wiki) . Data can be outputted to a range of formats (e.g. Nexus or TNT matrices), and new templates rapidly added as needed. MX provides an environment in which taxonomists working on a project at different institutions can have access to the same shared information and data and share the ability to modify and utilize it as a particular project progresses. A dynamic help system ties specific pages to a wiki, allowing users to post and answer questions pertinent to a given application page. Johan Liljeblad (postdoc UCR) has worked with Yoder to develop the matrix coding interface for over 400 morphological characters proposed for the Chalcidoidea Tree-of-Life project (see below). MX contains engines to produce both multiple-entry and dichotomous on-line keys and taxonomic catalogs (e.g. http://evaniid.tamu.edu) , and can also include associated host data and species pages (www.diapriid.org) . MX provides the ability to link images to MorphBank 2.5.5 (http://morphbank.net/) . Finally, products developed in MX can make use of close integration to a simple Ontology builder (http://hymglossary.tamu.edu) implemented therein, such that blocks of descriptive text can automatically be linked to referenced and illustrated definitions. Chalcidoidea Tree-of-Life (Morphology Project) •morphological character coding in MX This project is aimed at resolving the phylogeny for the superfamily Chalcidoidea. The study is based on adult external morphology with additions from life-history and behavior. Currently more than 400 characters are being managed. Through MX we aim to keep all characters and codings in one place, building one large password protected matrix for anyone to analyze and ultimately expand upon. Any user can make their own customized characters, character lists and matrices. Data will eventually be linked to complementary sequence data for export as combined data matrices. |