WikiPathways for plants: a community pathway curation portal and a case study in rice and arabidopsis seed development networks

Background: Next-generation sequencing and 'omics' platforms are used extensively in plant biology research to unravel new genomes and study their interactions with abiotic and biotic agents in the growth environment. Despite the availability of a large and growing number of genomic data sets, there are only limited resources providing highly-curated and up-to-date metabolic and regulatory networks for plant pathways. Results: Using PathVisio, a pathway editor tool associated with WikiPathways, we created a gene interaction network of 430 rice (Oryza sativa) genes involved in the seed development process by curating interactions reported in the published literature. We then applied an InParanoid-based homology search to these genes and used the resulting gene clusters to identify 351 Arabidopsis thaliana genes. Using this list of homologous genes, we constructed a seed development network in Arabidopsis by processing the gene list and the rice network through a Perl utility software called Pathway GeneSWAPPER developed by us. In order to demonstrate the utility of these networks in generating testable hypotheses and preliminary analysis prior to more in-depth downstream analysis, we used the expression viewer and statistical analysis features of PathVisio to analyze publicly-available and published microarray gene expression data sets on diurnal photoperiod response and the seed development time course to discover patterns of coexpressed genes found in the rice and Arabidopsis seed development networks. These seed development networks described herein, along with other plant pathways and networks, are freely available on the plant pathways portal at WikiPathways (http://plants.wikipathways.org). Conclusion: In collaboration with the WikiPathways project we present a community curation and analysis platform for plant biologists where registered users can freely create, edit, share and monitor pathways supported by published literature. We describe the curation and annotation of a seed development network in rice, and the projection of a similar, gene homology-based network in Arabidopsis. We also demonstrate the utility of the Pathway GeneSWAPPER (PGS) application in saving valuable time and labor when a reference network in one species compiled in GPML format is used to project a similar network in another species based on gene homology.Keywords: Metabolic pathways, Stress response, Oryza sativa L., Gene expression, Coordinated transcriptional regulation, Use efficiency, Flowering time, Database, Identification, Genom

QlicRice: a web interface for abiotic stress responsive QTL and loci interaction channels in rice

The QlicRice database is designed to host publicly accessible, abiotic stress responsive quantitative trait loci (QTLs) in rice (Oryza sativa) and their corresponding sequenced gene loci. It provides a platform for the data mining of abiotic stress responsive QTLs, as well as browsing and annotating associated traits, their location on a sequenced genome, mapped expressed sequence tags (ESTs) and tissue and growth stage-specific expressions on the whole genome. Information on QTLs related to abiotic stresses and their corresponding loci from a genomic perspective has not yet been integrated on an accessible, user-friendly platform. QlicRice offers client-responsive architecture to retrieve meaningful biological information-integrated and named 'Qlic Search'-embedded in a query phrase autocomplete feature, coupled with multiple search options that include trait names, genes and QTL IDs. A comprehensive physical and genetic map and vital statistics have been provided in a graphical manner for deciphering the position of QTLs on different chromosomes. A convenient and intuitive user interface have been designed to help users retrieve associations to agronomically important QTLs on abiotic stress response in rice. Database URL: http://nabg.iasri.res.in:8080/qlic-rice/

The Planteome database:an integrated resource for reference ontologies, plant genomics and phenomics

The Planteome project (http://www.planteome.org) provides a suite of reference and species-specific ontologies for plants and annotations to genes and phenotypes. Ontologies serve as common standards for semantic integration of a large and growing corpus of plant genomics, phenomics and genetics data. The reference ontologies include the Plant Ontology, Plant Trait Ontology and the Plant Experimental Conditions Ontology developed by the Planteome project, along with the Gene Ontology, Chemical Entities of Biological Interest, Phenotype and Attribute Ontology, and others. The project also provides access to species-specific Crop Ontologies developed by various plant breeding and research communities from around the world. We provide integrated data on plant traits, phenotypes, and gene function and expression from 95 plant taxa, annotated with reference ontology terms. The Planteome project is developing a plant gene annotation platform; Planteome Noctua, to facilitate community engagement. All the Planteome ontologies are publicly available and are maintained at the Planteome GitHub site (https://github.com/Planteome) for sharing, tracking revisions and new requests. The annotated data are freely accessible from the ontology browser (http://browser.planteome.org/amigo) and our data repository

QlicRice: a web interface for abiotic stress responsive QTL and loci interaction channels in rice

The QlicRice database is designed to host publicly accessible, abiotic stress responsive quantitative trait loci (QTLs) in rice (Oryza sativa) and their corresponding sequenced gene loci. It provides a platform for the data mining of abiotic stress responsive QTLs, as well as browsing and annotating associated traits, their location on a sequenced genome, mapped expressed sequence tags (ESTs) and tissue and growth stage-specific expressions on the whole genome. Information on QTLs related to abiotic stresses and their corresponding loci from a genomic perspective has not yet been integrated on an accessible, user-friendly platform. QlicRice offers client-responsive architecture to retrieve meaningful biological information—integrated and named ‘Qlic Search’—embedded in a query phrase autocomplete feature, coupled with multiple search options that include trait names, genes and QTL IDs. A comprehensive physical and genetic map and vital statistics have been provided in a graphical manner for deciphering the position of QTLs on different chromosomes. A convenient and intuitive user interface have been designed to help users retrieve associations to agronomically important QTLs on abiotic stress response in rice

Ontologies as Integrative Tools for Plant Science

Premise of the study: Bio-ontologies are essential tools for accessing and analyzing the rapidly growing pool of plant genomic and phenomic data. Ontologies provide structured vocabularies to support consistent aggregation of data and a semantic framework for automated analyses and reasoning. They are a key component of the semantic web. Methods: This paper provides background on what bio-ontologies are, why they are relevant to botany, and the principles of ontology development. It includes an overview of ontologies and related resources that are relevant to plant science, with a detailed description of the Plant Ontology (PO). We discuss the challenges of building an ontology that covers all green plants (Viridiplantae). Key results: Ontologies can advance plant science in four keys areas: (1) comparative genetics, genomics, phenomics, and development; (2) taxonomy and systematics; (3) semantic applications; and (4) education. Conclusions: Bio-ontologies offer a flexible framework for comparative plant biology, based on common botanical understanding. As genomic and phenomic data become available for more species, we anticipate that the annotation of data with ontology terms will become less centralized, while at the same time, the need for cross-species queries will become more common, causing more researchers in plant science to turn to ontologies.Keywords: Bio-ontologies, Plant Ontology, Plant genomics, OBO Foundry, Plant systematics, Plant anatomy, Genome annotation, Semantic web, PhenomicsKeywords: Bio-ontologies, Plant Ontology, Plant genomics, OBO Foundry, Plant systematics, Plant anatomy, Genome annotation, Semantic web, Phenomic

The Plant Ontology as a Tool for Comparative Plant Anatomy and Genomic Analyses

The Plant Ontology (PO;http://www.plantontology.org/" is a publicly available, collaborative effort to develop and maintain a controlled, structured vocabulary ('ontology') of terms to describe plant anatomy, morphology and the stages of plant development. The goals of the PO are to link (annotate) gene expression and phenotype data to plant structures and stages of plant development, using the data model adopted by the Gene Ontology. From its original design covering only rice, maize and Arabidopsis, the scope of the PO has been expanded to include all green plants. The PO was the first multispecies anatomy ontology developed for the annotation of genes and phenotypes. Also, to our knowledge, it was one of the first biological ontologies that provides translations (via synonyms) in non-English languages such as Japanese and Spanish. As of Release #18 (July 2012), there are about 2.2 million annotations linking PO terms to > 110,000 unique data objects representing genes or gene models, proteins, RNAs, germplasm and quantitative trait loci (QTLs) from 22 plant species. In this paper, we focus on the plant anatomical entity branch of the PO, describing the organizing principles, resources available to users and examples of how the PO is integrated into other plant genomics databases and web portals. We also provide two examples of comparative analyses, demonstrating how the ontology structure and PO-annotated data can be used to discover the patterns of expression of the LEAFY (LFY) and terpene synthase (TPS) gene homologs.Keywords: Plant anatomy, Terpene synthase, Bioinformatics, Comparative genomics, Genome annotation, Ontolog

Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial

Background Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy

Expression Atlas: gene and protein expression across multiple studies and organisms

Expression Atlas (http://www.ebi.ac.uk/gxa) is an added value database that provides information about gene and protein expression in different species and contexts, such as tissue, developmental stage, disease or cell type. The available public and controlled access data sets from different sources are curated and re-analysed using standardized, open source pipelines and made available for queries, download and visualization. As of August 2017, Expression Atlas holds data from 3,126 studies across 33 different species, including 731 from plants. Data from large-scale RNA sequencing studies including Blueprint, PCAWG, ENCODE, GTEx and HipSci can be visualized next to each other. In Expression Atlas, users can query genes or gene-sets of interest and explore their expression across or within species, tissues, developmental stages in a constitutive or differential context, representing the effects of diseases, conditions or experimental interventions. All processed data matrices are available for direct download in tab-delimited format or as R-data. In addition to the web interface, data sets can now be searched and downloaded through the Expression Atlas R package. Novel features and visualizations include the on-the-fly analysis of gene set overlaps and the option to view gene co-expression in experiments investigating constitutive gene expression across tissues or other conditions

Gramene 2013: comparative plant genomics resources

Gramene (http://www.gramene.org) is a curated online resource for comparative functional genomics in crops and model plant species, currently hosting 27 fully and 10 partially sequenced reference genomes in its build number 38. Its strength derives from the application of a phylogenetic framework for genome comparison and the use of ontologies to integrate structural and functional annotation data. Whole-genome alignments complemented by phylogenetic gene family trees help infer syntenic and orthologous relationships. Genetic variation data, sequences and genome mappings available for 10 species, including Arabidopsis, rice and maize, help infer putative variant effects on genes and transcripts. The pathways section also hosts 10 species-specific metabolic pathways databases developed in-house or by our collaborators using Pathway Tools software, which facilitates searches for pathway, reaction and metabolite annotations, and allows analyses of user-defined expression datasets. Recently, we released a Plant Reactome portal featuring 133 curated rice pathways. This portal will be expanded for Arabidopsis, maize and other plant species. We continue to provide genetic and QTL maps and marker datasets developed by crop researchers. The project provides a unique community platform to support scientific research in plant genomics including studies in evolution, genetics, plant breeding, molecular biology, biochemistry and systems biology

Diagnosis and management of Silver–Russell syndrome: first international consensus statement

This Consensus Statement summarizes recommendations for clinical diagnosis, investigation and management of patients with Silver–Russell syndrome (SRS), an imprinting disorder that causes prenatal and postnatal growth retardation. Considerable overlap exists between the care of individuals born small for gestational age and those with SRS. However, many specific management issues exist and evidence from controlled trials remains limited. SRS is primarily a clinical diagnosis; however, molecular testing enables confirmation of the clinical diagnosis and defines the subtype. A 'normal' result from a molecular test does not exclude the diagnosis of SRS. The management of children with SRS requires an experienced, multidisciplinary approach. Specific issues include growth failure, severe feeding difficulties, gastrointestinal problems, hypoglycaemia, body asymmetry, scoliosis, motor and speech delay and psychosocial challenges. An early emphasis on adequate nutritional status is important, with awareness that rapid postnatal weight gain might lead to subsequent increased risk of metabolic disorders. The benefits of treating patients with SRS with growth hormone include improved body composition, motor development and appetite, reduced risk of hypoglycaemia and increased height. Clinicians should be aware of possible premature adrenarche, fairly early and rapid central puberty and insulin resistance. Treatment with gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogues can delay progression of central puberty and preserve adult height potential. Long-term follow up is essential to determine the natural history and optimal management in adulthood