Quick Search Examples and Questions
More Help

This help document answers the following questions:

Back to "Using the Quick Search Tool"

Is there an advanced search?

You can narrow what the Quick Search returns by:

You can get additional information about Quick Search results by:

See also When should I use Quick Search vs. an individual MGI query form? for more information about advanced searches.

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I got more than one result when I searched by accession ID. Why?

Accession IDs associated directly and only with a genome feature appear as an exact match under Genome Features. Accession IDs associated with one or more genome features and with another object (for example, a sequence ID) return the associated features as exact matches and accessioned objects in Other Results by ID. These include:

In addition, some accession IDs are not unique. As an example, query for 100678.

See Accession ID types and examples for list of providers, sample IDs, and where to look for any matches in the Quick Search Results.

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I want an exact genome feature match. Should I query by name or symbol or synonym or can I use an ortholog?

You may use any of these, and more. Searchable fields for exact matching include:

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Can I search using complicated nomenclature, e.g. T(XA1?;InY)8Ei, reciprocal translocation, Chr X and inverted Chr Y, Eicher 8?

Quick Search handles special characters such as parentheses, commas, colons, semicolons, slashes, +/-. However, the text in this example consists of both the symbol (T(XA1?;InY)8Ei) and name (reciprocal translocation, Chr X and inverted Chr Y, Eicher 8). Enter either the symbol or the name in the query box. If you want an exact match on the name, use the exact phrase option or enclose the phrase in quotes.

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My term appears in different various forms in an MGI vocabulary. Does it matter which one I use?

All synonym variations produce the same result. For example, whether you enter (K+ + H+)-ATPase activity or H+/K+-ATPase activity, or H,K-ATPase activity, you'll see identical matches.

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I'm looking for hydrogen:potassium-exchanging ATPase activity GO:0008900. What do I enter in the Quick Search box?

The string above contains both the term definition (hydrogen:potassium-exchanging ATPase activity) and the identifier (GO:0008900). One or the other is sufficient when querying for any matches. For best results, enclose multi-word terms in quotation marks, e.g. "hydrogen:potassium-exchanging ATPase activity" or choose the exact phrase search option.

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Do I have to know vocabulary keywords or could I enter a vocabulary definition or synonym instead?

Quick Search looks for terms (that is, keywords), synonyms, and definitions from the vocabularies. If you want an exact match, use the exact phrase search option or put the word or phrase in quotation marks, or use the ontology ID.

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Which controlled vocabularies does Quick Search query?

AcronymOntologyQuick Search looks for…
EMAPAMouse Developmental Anatomy Ontology
(Browser)
Mouse anatomical terms
GOGene Ontology
GO Browser
Function including molecular function, biological process, and cellular component
MPMammalian Phenotype
Mammalian Phenotype Browser
Phenotype
OMIMOnline Mendelian Inheritance in Man Disease (model or ortholog)
DODisease Ontology
Disease Ontology Browser
Disease (model or ortholog)
PIRSFProtein Information Resource SuperFamily Protein families
InterProProtein data from EBI's InterPro databaseProtein domain

Note: Adult Mouse Anatomy (MA) matches do not appear beneath Vocabulary Terms, but (when available) do appear beneath Other Results by ID.

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How many items can I search for at once?

We recommend using no more than 32 words, IDs, or other text items. Each piece of text in a phrase, even when enclosed in quotation marks, counts as a word.

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Are wild cards allowed?

The only wild card allowed is the asterisk and you can only use it at the end of a word or symbol or term.

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Are multi-word phrases allowed?

Yes, though we recommend using no more than 32 words.

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Do I have to use quotation marks?

No, but they are helpful when you don't use the Quick Search's exact phrase option and want to perform an exact phrase match to a portion of your search terms.

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Does Quick Search offer an alternative spelling if I mistype something?

No.

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Are there any examples of the accession IDs that Quick Search can find?

Yes. See Querying by Accession ID - Results and Examples for list of providers, sample IDs, and where to look for any matches in the Quick Search Results.

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What is stemming? Are there examples of words that Quick Search stems?

Quick Search identifies the "root" of a word by removing common suffixes. This is called stemming. (For more information, see stemming in Wikipedia.) As examples: translocation is stemmed to transloc-; immunization is stemmed to immun-. Click See Details for this Search on a Results page to see how Quick Search has stemmed any word or phrase in your search text.

Additional examples:

TermStemmed to…
alimentaryalimentari-
perinatalperinat-
metabolismmetabol-
immuneimmun-
embryonicembryon-
postnatalpostnat-
agingage-
pigmentationpigment-
urinary systemurinari-, system-
respiratoryrespiratori-
tumorigenesistumorigenesi-

Note: For best results, use wild cards on scientific or medical terms that the stemming algorithm may not recognize. As examples, use:

Note: You may find that matches on the Genome Features are to stemmed versions of your search term and that these entries appear prior to your search term. As an example, you enter Apoe and expect to see alleles of this gene at the top of the list, but instead you discover genes with synonyms containing Apo. This occurs because the search engine does not discriminate between Apo (the term as stemmed) and Apoe (your term) but does allot marker symbols a larger value.

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What are "stop words" and what does Quick Search do with them?

Stop words are natural articles of speech that are filtered by search engines to speed up processing. See stop words in Wikipedia for a definition. Quick Search removes the following words (except when they are part of a gene name) from queries:

a | an | and | as | be | but | if | is| it | or | such | that | the | their | then | there | these | they | this | was | will

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Help! I can't find what I was looking for.

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