Plant Bioinformatics

The past 15 years have been exciting ones in plant biology. Hundreds of plant genomes have been sequenced, RNA-seq has enabled transcriptome-wide expression profiling, and a proliferation of "-seq"-based methods has permitted protein-protein and protein-DNA interactions to be determined cheaply and in a high-throughput manner. These data sets in turn allow us to generate hypotheses at the click of a mouse. For instance, knowing where and when a gene is expressed can help us narrow down the phenotypic search space when we don't see a phenotype in a gene mutant under "normal" growth conditions. Coexpression analyses and association networks can provide high-quality candidate genes involved in a biological process of interest. Using Gene Ontology enrichment analysis and pathway visualization tools can help us make sense of our own 'omics experiments and answer the question "what processes/pathways are being perturbed in our mutant of interest?"

Structure: each of the 6 week hands-on modules consists of a ~2 minute intro, a ~20 minute theory mini-lecture, a 1.5 hour hands-on lab, an optional ~20 minute lab discussion if experiencing difficulties with lab, and a ~2 minute summary.

Tools covered [Material updated in June 2025]:

Module 1: GENOMIC DBs / PRECOMPUTED GENE TREES / PROTEIN TOOLS. Araport, TAIR, Gramene, EnsemblPlants Compara, PLAZA, SUBA5 and Cell eFP Browser, 1001 Genomes Browser, PlantConnectome

Module 2: EXPRESSION TOOLS. eFP Browser / eFP-Seq Browser, Araport, ARDB, TravaDB, NCBI Genome Data Viewer for exploring RNA-seq data for many plant species, MPSS database for small RNAs, SCEA and Ecker Lab Seed-to-Seed scAtlas

Module 3: COEXPRESSION TOOLS. ATTED II, Expression Angler, AraNet, AtCAST2

Module 4: PROMOTER ANALYSIS. Cistome, MEME, ePlant

Module 5: GO ENRICHMENT ANALYSIS AND PATHWAY VIZUALIZATION. AgriGO, AmiGO, Classification SuperViewer, TAIR, g:profiler, AraCyc, MapMan (optional: Plant Reactome)

Module 6: NETWORK EXPLORATION. Arabidopsis Interactions...