TrichOME: a comparative omics database for plant trichomes.
Plant secretory trichomes have a unique capacity for chemical synthesis and secretion and have been described as biofactories for the production of natural products. However, until recently, most trichome-specific metabolic pathways and genes involved in various trichome developmental stages have remained unknown. Furthermore, only a very limited amount of plant trichome genomics information is available in scattered databases. We present an integrated "omics" database, TrichOME, to facilitate the study of plant trichomes. The database hosts a large volume of functional omics data, including expressed sequence tag/unigene sequences, microarray hybridizations from both trichome and control tissues, mass spectrometry-based trichome metabolite profiles, and trichome-related genes curated from published literature. The expressed sequence tag/unigene sequences have been annotated based upon sequence similarity with popular databases (e.g. Gene Ontology, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes, and Transporter Classification Database). The unigenes, metabolites, curated genes, and probe sets have been mapped against each other to enable comparative analysis. The database also integrates bioinformatics tools with a focus on the mining of trichome-specific genes in unigenes and microarray-based gene expression profiles. TrichOME is a valuable and unique resource for plant trichome research, since the genes and metabolites expressed in trichomes are often underrepresented in regular non-tissue-targeted cDNA libraries. TrichOME is freely available at http://www.planttrichome.org/.
Dai
Xinbin
X
Plant Biology Division, The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation, Ardmore, Oklahoma 73401, USA.
Wang
Guodong
G
Yang
Dong Sik
DS
Tang
Yuhong
Y
Broun
Pierre
P
Marks
M David
MD
Sumner
Lloyd W
LW
Dixon
Richard A
RA
Zhao
Patrick Xuechun
PX
D016208:Databases, Factual; D020224:Expressed Sequence Tags; D010940:Plant Proteins / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D018547:Plant Stems / Q000648:ultrastructure; D010944:Plants / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D040081:Protein Array Analysis
D010940:Plant Proteins