Plant & Animal Genomes XII Conference

January 10-14, 2004
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA

           Computer: Demo Only

THE GRAMENE DATABASE: A TUTORIAL

¹ Department of Plant Breeding, 240 Emerson Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA

² Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, 1 Bungtown Road, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724, USA

Gramene (http://www.gramene.org) is a comparative genome mapping database for grasses. Both automatic and manual curation are performed to combine and interrelate information on genomic and EST sequences; genetic, physical, and sequence-based maps; proteins; molecular markers; mutant phenotypes and QTL; and publications. Rice genomic sequence serves as a common demoninator for mapping and comparing sequence across grass species. Comparative maps of rice, maize, sorghum, barley, wheat and oat are anchored to each other by a set of curated correspondences as well as by sequence similarity of ESTs and genomic markers. Controlled vocabularies (ontologies) are used to annotate proteins and phenotypes, which permits users to query and make comparisons across taxonomic groups. The tutorial will involve an interactive session allowing participants to familiarize themselves with the use of Gramene database and learn how Gramene can help in their comparative mapping projects.