General
The available information for 5000 strains represented by 16S rRNA sequences, much of which cannot be shown in the phylogenetic tree owing to space limitation, is presented in a single large table containing 17 fields.

Searching
Using the search function is quite simple.
The strain data are presented in columns. Type or paste a search expression in the relevant search box, multiple boxes may be used sequentially or simultaneously; records that do not contain the term(s) are hidden, the positive records remaining visible. When finished, delete the expression with the ′Reset′ button. To restore the whole table the user must click the browser ′clear cache′ button.
The search term is case insensitive, and may be a whole or partial word. Thus (taking the generic name Gloeobacter as an example):
′gloeob′, ′gloeobacter′ or ′Gloeobacter′ (without the tick marks) find all strains of the genus, whereas ′gloeo′ finds additional genera such as Gloeothece, Gloeocapsa... whose name starts with that term.

For genome size, the data are presented for strains represented by complete genome sequences only, the rest being shown as ′n/a′ because we cannot be certain of the size of draft genomes, and many strains are represented by 16S rRNA sequences obtained by specific PCR.

The dropdown menus
The G+C content of the 16S rRNA gene varies from 48-65% across the tree; and a dropdown menu (permitting the choice of ′exact value′, ′less than′ or ′greater than′) is provided.
The same choices as those described above for the G+C content of the 16S rRNA gene may also be made for genome size, using the genome size dropdown.

It is important to note that the choice (exact value, greater than or less than) in the dropdown menus should be made before the required value is entered into the appropriate search box.

Print or copy
The results may be printed via the ′print′ option of the browser; landscape and tabloid paper size are best for this wide table. Even if the page has been scrolled, the search box and search term are visible in the printed version. However, the resulting PDF is difficult to read and manipulate. It is more convenient to save the results of a search (which will contain fewer rows); this may be done simply by selecting the rows of interest, copying/pasting into a spreadsheet programme, deleting the unwanted page header part and removing any unwanted columns.