TAIR: The Arabidopsis Information Resource

华盛顿的卡内基研究所获得一笔赠款，用于将现有的模式生物数据库开发成比较植物基因组学的资源。 拟南芥信息资源（TAIR）每月为全球35，000多名植物生物学研究人员提供参考植物拟南芥的基因组数据的在线访问。 该资源中包含的数据包括从广泛的研究文献中收集的拟南芥基因结构和功能数据，这些数据可用于更好地了解其他植物性状的遗传基础，包括食品，饲料和生物能源作物物种以及生态上重要的植物物种。 为了促进这种理解，并使拟南芥的知识更有效地转移到其他植物物种，该项目将修改现有的数据库和网站，以存储和显示其他植物的基因组数据，并提供工具来比较基因组图谱，核苷酸和蛋白质序列，以及来自其他植物基因组的直向同源基因。 拟议的工作还将扩大一个试点项目，在该项目中，学术期刊与TAIR合作，将新发现的基因功能数据有效地纳入数据库，提高新结果的可用性和影响力。了解基础植物生物学对于满足当前和未来全球粮食和能源需求至关重要。TAIR是植物生物学研究和教育基础设施的基础组成部分，为美国和地球仪各地各种类型和规模的机构的学生和研究人员提供基本植物生物学数据集和工具。基于电子邮件的帮助台每年处理超过一千个问题，从高中生和本科生对基本植物生物学事实的请求到研究生和博士后研究员对高度专业化的定制数据集的请求。一个广泛的推广计划包括会议研讨会，教程和在线帮助。TAIR可以在http://arabidopsis.org上访问。

The Carnegie Institute of Washington is awarded a grant to develop an existing model organism database into a resource for comparative plant genomics. The Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR) provides online access to genomic data for the reference plant Arabidopsis thaliana to over 35,000 plant biology researchers worldwide each month. Data housed in this resource include Arabidopsis gene structure and function data gathered from the extensive research literature for this plant which can be applied to better understand the genetic basis for traits in other plants, including food, feed and bioenergy crop species as well as ecologically important plant species. To promote such understanding and make the transfer of knowledge from Arabidopsis to other plant species more efficient, the project will modify the existing database and website to store and display genomic data from other plants and provide tools to compare genome maps, nucleotide and protein sequences, and orthologous genes from other plant genomes. The proposed work will also expand a pilot project in which academic journals partner with TAIR to efficiently incorporate newly discovered gene function data into the database, increasing the availability and impact of the new results.Understanding basic plant biology is essential to meeting current and future worldwide food and energy needs. TAIR serves as a foundational component of the plant biology research and education infrastructure, providing access to fundamental plant biology datasets and tools for students and researchers at institutions of all types and sizes across the United States and around the globe. An email-based help desk handles over a thousand questions per year ranging from requests for basic plant biology facts by high school students and undergraduates to requests for highly specialized custom datasets from graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. An extensive outreach program includes conference workshops, tutorials and online help. TAIR can be accessed at http://arabidopsis.org.