Phytophthora functional genomics database (PFGD): functional genomics of phytophthora–plant interactions

The Phytophthora Functional Genomics Database (PFGD; http://www.pfgd.org), developed by the National Center for Genome Resources in collaboration with The Ohio State University-Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center (OSU-OARDC), is a publicly accessible information resource for Phytophthora-plant interaction research. PFGD contains transcript, genomic, gene expression and functional assay data for Phytophthora infestans, which causes late blight of potato, and Phytophthora sojae, which affects soybeans. Automated analyses are performed on all sequence data, including consensus sequences derived from clustered and assembled expressed sequence tags. The PFGD search filter interface allows intuitive navigation of transcript and genomic data organized by library and derived queries using modifiers, annotation keywords or sequence names. BLAST services are provided for libraries built from the transcript and genomic sequences. Transcript data visualization tools include Quality Screening, Multiple Sequence Alignment and Features and Annotations viewers. A genomic browser that supports comparative analysis via novel dynamic functional annotation comparisons is also provided. PFGD is integrated with the Solanaceae Genomics Database (SolGD; http://www.solgd.org) to help provide insight into the mechanisms of infection and resistance, specifically as they relate to the genus Phytophthora pathogens and their plant hosts.