Phytome is an online comparative genomics resource that can be applied to functional plant genomics, molecular breeding and evolutionary studies. It contains predicted protein sequences, protein family assignments, multiple sequence alignments, phylogenies and functional annotations for proteins from a large, phylogenetically diverse set of plant taxa. Phytome serves as a glue between disparate plant gene databases both by identifying the evolutionary relationships among orthologous and paralogous protein sequences from different species and by enabling cross-references between different versions of the same gene curated independently by different database groups. The web interface enables sophisticated queries on lineage-specific patterns of gene/protein family proliferation and loss. This rich dataset is serving as a platform for the unification of sequence-anchored comparative maps across taxonomic families of plants. The Phytome web interface can be accessed at the following URL: http://www.phytome.org. Batch homology searches and bulk downloads are available upon free registration.
