Project Number: 1907-21000-030-00
Project Type: Appropriated

Start Date: Apr 04, 2008
End Date: Apr 03, 2013

Objective:
Biological research benefits extraordinarily from the integration of many different types of data both within and between species. The first specific objective of the proposal builds on existing and emerging data sets, providing resources to characterize, track and ultimately identify sequence associated with agronomically important traits. The second objective addresses infrastructure to manage, visualize and distribute complex datasets. The research makes use of four methodologies, data integration, software development, genome annotation, and evolutionary analysis. Throughout the proposal each objective builds upon each other. Combined they hold greater potential for providing a knowledge base for improving agricultural varieties. 1. Enhance our knowledge of plant genome structure, organization and evolution through computational and experimental approaches. 2. Develop and implement standards for plant genome databases. This includes development of vocabulary, methods, database structures and visualization software to facilitate data integration and interoperability.

Approach:
We propose to leverage computational and experimental approaches, building on existing and new developed resources to create standardized baseline comparative maps and genome annotations across plant genomes, with an emphasis on crop grasses and other agriculturally important species as well as model genomes. As part of this work we will leverage existing infrastructure and build upon these to deliver data management and visualization tools for sequence, maps, diversity, and phenotype data sets.