Plant & Animal Genomes XVII Conference

January 10-14, 2009
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA

Expanding The Utility Of Animal QTLdb

Zhi-Liang Hu¹ , Cari Park ¹ , Eric Fritz ¹ , Mindy Dwindell ² , Mary Shimoyama ² , James M. Reecy¹

¹  Department of Animal Science and Center for Integrated Animal Genomics, Iowa State University, 2255 Kildee Hall, Ames, IA 50011

²  Rat Genome Database, Human and Molecular Genetics Center, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI 53226

Whole genome sequencing and genome-wide association analysis technologies have generated tremendous opportunities and challenges for animal genome researchers. While genome-wide association studies provide a mechanism to detect genes whose biological function controls traits of interest, assembled genome sequences make it possible to link genetics and biological information. Therefore, mining genome information to facilitate genetics study becomes possible via structural alignments and standardized terminology. To facilitate the analysis of QTL and whole genome association data, we have worked to curate all published studies in cattle, chickens, sheep and swine. In collaboration with the Rat Genome Database, Mouse Genome Informatics, SABRE and EADGENE, we are developing the Vertebrate Trait (VT) Ontology to standardize phenotype nomenclature across species, which will facilitate across species comparison. To meet the community needs for analysis of QTL and gene association studies in association with their research data, we have developed a GBrowse-based genomics information hub through which all QTL and gene association can be readily aligned, raw and dissected data sets be downloaded for further analysis. This GBrowse-based information hub is part of our plan to incorporate related functionality of distributed annotation system (DAS), BioMart and NCBI Powertools, to build a seamless information integration system across platforms.