Plant, Animal & Microbe Genomes X Conference

January 12-16, 2002
Town & Country Convention Center
San Diego, CA

Bioinformatics: Databases
             

BIOINFORMATIC SYSTEMS SUPPORTING RICE GENETIC ENHANCEMENT PROGRAMS AT THE INTERNATIONAL RICE RESEARCH INSTITUTE

¹ International Rice Research Institute, DAPO 7777, Metro Manila, Philippines

The International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), a member institute of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), is augmenting its traditional research program in rice plant breeding and germplasm characterization with new projects in functional genomics and trait-driven gene discovery. These projects rely heavily upon bioinformatic approaches to cope with the large quantity of high-throughput data being generated within and outside the Institute. Our presentation outlines some of the bioinformatics-based initiatives underway at IRRI including:

• Development of a bioinformatics workbench for rice biologists.
• Genetic mapping and genomic sequence extensions to the CGIAR International Crop Information System (ICIS) including a collaboration with NCGR in comparative mapping tool development;
• Laboratory information management systems for DNA microarray and proteomic datasets;
• Functional genomic database development;
• Trait-specific gene discovery databases such as "StressGenesDb" (for plant stress response genes);
• Bioinformatic support for biodiversity assessment and allelic mining of IRRI's comprehensive rice germplasm repository;
• International collaborations in all these areas.