title: Silicon era of carbon-based life: application of genomics and bioinformatics in crop stress research.
abstract: Abiotic and biotic stresses lead to massive reprogramming of different life processes and are the major limiting factors hampering crop productivity. Omics-based research platforms allow for a holistic and comprehensive survey on crop stress responses and hence may bring forth better crop improvement strategies. Since high-throughput approaches generate considerable amounts of data, bioinformatics tools will play an essential role in storing, retrieving, sharing, processing, and analyzing them. Genomic and functional genomic studies in crops still lag far behind similar studies in humans and other animals. In this review, we summarize some useful genomics and bioinformatics resources available to crop scientists. In addition, we also discuss the major challenges and advancements in the "-omics" studies, with an emphasis on their possible impacts on crop stress research and crop improvement.
authors.affiliation: Center for Soybean Research, State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology and School of Life Sciences, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong. honming@cuhk.edu.hk.
authors.forename: Man-Wah
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Xinpeng
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.forename: Meng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ni
authors.forename: Hon-Ming
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Lam
mesh_terms: D002244:Carbon / Q000494:pharmacology*; D019295:Computational Biology / Q000379:methods*; D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D023281:Genomics / Q000379:methods*; D012825:Silicon / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000187:drug effects*
chemical_list: D002244:Carbon; D012825:Silicon