Database Commons

a catalog of worldwide biological databases

Panzea (http://www.panzea.org), the public web site of the project 'Molecular and Functional Diversity in the Maize Genome', has expanded over the past two years in data content, display tools and informational sections. The most significant data content expansions occurred for the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), sequencing, isozyme and phenotypic data types. We have enhanced our existing web display tools and have launched a number of new tools for data display and analysis. For example, we have implemented one that allows users to find polymorphisms between two accessions, a geographic map tool to visualize the geographic distribution of SNPs, simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and isozyme alleles and a graphical view of the placement of Panzea markers and genes/loci on genetic and physical maps. One goal of the informatics component of our project has been to generate code that can be used by other groups. We have enhanced our existing code base and have made our new tools available. Finally, we have also made available new informational sections as part of our educational and outreach efforts.

Serving as a community resource, Panzea (http://www.panzea.org) is the bioinformatics arm of the Molecular and Functional Diversity in the Maize Genome project. Maize, a classical model for genetic studies, is an important crop species and also the most diverse crop species known. On average, two randomly chosen maize lines have one single-nucleotide polymorphism every approximately 100 bp; this divergence is roughly equivalent to the differences between humans and chimpanzees. This exceptional genotypic diversity underlies the phenotypic diversity maize needs to be cultivated in a wide range of environments. The Molecular and Functional Diversity in the Maize Genome project aims to understand how selection has shaped molecular diversity in maize and then relate molecular diversity to functional phenotypic variation. The project will screen 4000 loci for the signature of selection and create a wide range of maize and maize-teosinte mapping populations. These populations will be genotyped and phenotyped, permitting high-power and high-resolution dissection of the traits and relating the molecular diversity to functional variation. Panzea provides access to the genotype, phenotype and polymorphism data produced by the project through user-friendly web-based database searches and data retrieval/visualization tools, as well as a wide variety of information and services related to maize diversity.

PANZEA is the first public database for studying maize genomic diversity. It was initiated as a repository of genomic diversity for an NSF Plant Genome project on 'Maize Evolutionary Genomics'. PANZEA is hosted at the Bioinformatics Research Center, North Carolina State University, and is open to the public (http://statgen.ncsu.edu/panzea). PANZEA is designed to capture the interrelationships between germplasm, molecular diversity, phenotypic diversity and genome structure. It has the ability to store, integrate and visualize DNA sequence, enzymatic, SSR (simple sequence repeat) marker, germplasm and phenotypic data. The relational data model is selected and implemented in Oracle. An automated DNA sequence data submission tool has been created that allows project researchers to remotely submit their DNA sequence data directly to PANZEA. On-line database search forms and reports have been created to allow users to search or download germplasm, DNA sequence, gene/locus data and much more, directly from the web.