title: SilkPathDB: a comprehensive resource for the study of silkworm pathogens.
abstract: Silkworm pathogens have been heavily impeding the development of sericultural industry and play important roles in lepidopteran ecology, and some of which are used as biological insecticides. Rapid advances in studies on the omics of silkworm pathogens have produced a large amount of data, which need to be brought together centrally in a coherent and systematic manner. This will facilitate the reuse of these data for further analysis. We have collected genomic data for 86 silkworm pathogens from 4 taxa (fungi, microsporidia, bacteria and viruses) and from 4 lepidopteran hosts, and developed the open-access Silkworm Pathogen Database (SilkPathDB) to make this information readily available. The implementation of SilkPathDB involves integrating Drupal and GBrowse as a graphic interface for a Chado relational database which houses all of the datasets involved. The genomes have been assembled and annotated for comparative purposes and allow the search and analysis of homologous sequences, transposable elements, protein subcellular locations, including secreted proteins, and gene ontology. We believe that the SilkPathDB will aid researchers in the identification of silkworm parasites, understanding the mechanisms of silkworm infections, and the developmental ecology of silkworm parasites (gene expression) and their hosts.
  
  
  
  http://silkpathdb.swu.edu.cn.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Silkworm Genome Biology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
authors.forename: Tian
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Silkworm Genome Biology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
authors.forename: Guo-Qing
authors.initials: GQ
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.affiliation: Department of Soil and Water, The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, 123 Huntington Street, New Haven, CT 06511, USA.
authors.forename: Charles R
authors.initials: CR
authors.lastname: Vossbrinck
authors.affiliation: College of Life Science, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing 400047, China.
authors.forename: Jin-Shan
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Silkworm Genome Biology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
authors.forename: Chun-Feng
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Silkworm Genome Biology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Silkworm Genome Biology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
authors.forename: Meng-Xian
authors.initials: MX
authors.lastname: Long
authors.affiliation: College of Computer and Information Science, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: College of Computer and Information Science, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Fei
authors.initials: XF
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Silkworm Genome Biology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.
authors.forename: Chen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Math/Science, Gateway Community College, 20 Church Street, New Haven, CT 06510, USA.
authors.forename: Bettina A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Debrunner-Vossbrinck
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Silkworm Genome Biology, Southwest University, Chongqing 400715, China.|College of Life Science, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing 400047, China.
authors.forename: Ze-Yang
authors.initials: ZY
authors.lastname: Zhou
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics*; D012831:Bombyx / Q000235:genetics* / Q000382:microbiology*; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D005658:Fungi / Q000235:genetics*; D016678:Genome; D007304:Insect Viruses / Q000235:genetics*; D016814:Microsporidia / Q000235:genetics*