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The Brassicaceae Database (BRAD version 3.0, BRAD V3.0; http://brassicadb.cn) has evolved from the former Brassica Database (BRAD V2.0), and represents an important community portal hosting genome information for multiple Brassica and related Brassicaceae plant species. Since the last update in 2015, the complex genomes of numerous Brassicaceae species have been decoded, accompanied by many omics datasets. To provide an up-to-date service, we report here a major upgrade of the portal. The Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) framework of BRAD has been re-engineered to enable easy and sustainable maintenance of the database. The collection of genomes has been increased to 26 species, along with optimization of the user interface. Features of the previous version have been retained, with additional new tools for exploring syntenic genes, gene expression and variation data. In the 'Syntenic Gene @ Subgenome' module, we added features to view the sequence alignment and phylogenetic relationships of syntenic genes. New modules include 'MicroSynteny' for viewing synteny of selected fragment pairs, and 'Polymorph' for retrieval of variation data. The updated BRAD provides a substantial expansion of genomic data and a comprehensive improvement of the service available to the Brassicaceae research community.

The Brassica database (BRAD) was built initially to assist users apply Brassica rapa and Arabidopsis thaliana genomic data efficiently to their research. However, many Brassicaceae genomes have been sequenced and released after its construction. These genomes are rich resources for comparative genomics, gene annotation and functional evolutionary studies of Brassica crops. Therefore, we have updated BRAD to version 2.0 (V2.0). In BRAD V2.0, 11 more Brassicaceae genomes have been integrated into the database, namely those of Arabidopsis lyrata, Aethionema arabicum, Brassica oleracea, Brassica napus, Camelina sativa, Capsella rubella, Leavenworthia alabamica, Sisymbrium irio and three extremophiles Schrenkiella parvula, Thellungiella halophila and Thellungiella salsuginea. BRAD V2.0 provides plots of syntenic genomic fragments between pairs of Brassicaceae species, from the level of chromosomes to genomic blocks. The Generic Synteny Browser (GBrowse_syn), a module of the Genome Browser (GBrowse), is used to show syntenic relationships between multiple genomes. Search functions for retrieving syntenic and non-syntenic orthologs, as well as their annotation and sequences are also provided. Furthermore, genome and annotation information have been imported into GBrowse so that all functional elements can be visualized in one frame. We plan to continually update BRAD by integrating more Brassicaceae genomes into the database. Database URL: http://brassicadb.org/brad/.

BACKGROUND: Brassica species include both vegetable and oilseed crops, which are very important to the daily life of common human beings. Meanwhile, the Brassica species represent an excellent system for studying numerous aspects of plant biology, specifically for the analysis of genome evolution following polyploidy, so it is also very important for scientific research. Now, the genome of Brassica rapa has already been assembled, it is the time to do deep mining of the genome data.
DESCRIPTION: BRAD, the Brassica database, is a web-based resource focusing on genome scale genetic and genomic data for important Brassica crops. BRAD was built based on the first whole genome sequence and on further data analysis of the Brassica A genome species, Brassica rapa (Chiifu-401-42). It provides datasets, such as the complete genome sequence of B. rapa, which was de novo assembled from Illumina GA II short reads and from BAC clone sequences, predicted genes and associated annotations, non coding RNAs, transposable elements (TE), B. rapa genes' orthologous to those in A. thaliana, as well as genetic markers and linkage maps. BRAD offers useful searching and data mining tools, including search across annotation datasets, search for syntenic or non-syntenic orthologs, and to search the flanking regions of a certain target, as well as the tools of BLAST and Gbrowse. BRAD allows users to enter almost any kind of information, such as a B. rapa or A. thaliana gene ID, physical position or genetic marker.
CONCLUSION: BRAD, a new database which focuses on the genetics and genomics of the Brassica plants has been developed, it aims at helping scientists and breeders to fully and efficiently use the information of genome data of Brassica plants. BRAD will be continuously updated and can be accessed through http://brassicadb.org.