Plant & Animal Genomes XIX Conference

January 15-19, 2011
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA

Towards Developing A Comprehensive Genomics, Genetics And Breeding Database For Cacao Improvement

Ping Zheng¹ , Taein Lee¹ , Stephen Ficklin¹ , Eliane Thaines Bodah¹ , Isaac Westland¹ , Sook Jung¹ , David N. Kuhn² , Keithanne Mockaitis³ , Donald Livingstone² , Don Gilbert⁴ , Stefan Royaert² , Raymond J. Schnell² , Juan Carlos Montamayor⁵ , Dorrie Main¹

¹  Washington State University, Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, 151 Johnson Hall, Pullman, WA 99164-6414, USA

²  Subtropical Horticulture Research Station, USDA-ARS, 12601 Old Cutler Rd, Miami, FL 33158

³  Indiana University, Center for Genomics and Bioinformatics, 1001 E. 3rd St. Bloomington, IN 47405-7005

⁴  Indiana University, Department of Biology, 1001 E. 3rd St. Bloomington, IN 47405-7005

⁵  Mars, Inc., Hackettstown, NJ, 07840, USA

The Cacao Genome Database (www.cacaogenomedb.org) is being developed to provide a comprehensive data mining resource of genomic, genetic and breeding data for Theobroma cacao. Designed using Chado and a collection of Drupal modules, known as Tripal, the database contains the annotated v0.9 release of the Theobroma cacao Matina1-6 genome, annotated transcript databases, genetic maps and markers, and all publicly available cacao sequences. All raw and analyzed data sets are available to browse, search and download. Available visualization and analysis tools include GBrowse, CMap, SSR server, NCBI and Batch BLAST servers. The website is available in English and Portuguese, with French and Spanish versions underway. A breeders toolbox is being developed to provide breeders with access to secure and personalized breeding management databases that directly connect to the public genomic and genetic data relevant for furthering genomics-assisted breeding of cacao.