RCN: An International Arabidopsis Informatics Consortium

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-------------------------The model plant Arabidopsis thaliana plays a unique and essential role as the reference organism for all seed plant species. This project will establish a Research Coordination Network that will lead to the development of informatics tools and resources for Arabidopsis in particular and for plant biology in general. It will be an open network that aims to draw in a broad cross-section of the US and international Arabidopsis communities. Arabidopsis research is at a critical junction; a broad range of new data types are becoming available, and the community?s ability to address important questions depends on the integration, visualization and analysis of these data. Diverse research groups are inventing new informatics approaches and thus the community needs a mechanism by which to identify, explore, promote, and enhance these resources. This project will catalyze a radical change in the way in which US and international researchers coordinate data generation, analysis and visualization. This project has the following goals: 1) The development of standards for Arabidopsis data deposition and display, 2) Development of a plan to develop Arabidopsis informatics tools and resources for the US and international communities, 3) Establishment of an International Arabidopsis Informatics Consortium that will build upon the activities and resources that will be generated in this project, 4) Establishment of a website as a resource for interested scientists and the general public. Broader Impacts: Through the coordination of Arabidopsis informatics efforts, this project will advance plant biology, create novel opportunities for research and education, and lead to the establishment and growth of an International Arabidopsis Informatics Consortium. The problems that the Arabidopsis community is facing today will also challenge other communities, and this type of coordinated international approach to leveraging informatics resources across borders should provide an example (and resources) for such communities. Experiences learned from this application will have a broad impact across biology, particularly for crop plants for which a similar expansion in data is occurring and which often can build on efforts pioneered in Arabidopsis. The resources developed in this project will be widely and freely available and will be useful for students and researchers at educational institutions of all sizes, for industry, and for the public.