CottonGen: A Database Resource for Genomics, Genetics and Breeding Research

CottonGen (www.cottongen.org) is the worldwide community database for cotton, housing data and tools that facilitate research discovery and cultivar improvement. It provides access to publicly available genomics, genetics and breeding data for cotton that is curated and integrated with a suite of analysis and visualization tools. These include genome, map and pathway viewers such as JBrowse, MapViewer and CottonCyc, as well as many search interfaces that allow researchers to readily search and retrieve data. CottonGen recently released a Cotton Trait Ontology, CottonGen Reference Transcriptomes (RefTrans) and new MapViewer. The Breeding Information Management System (BIMS) is now available in CottonGen providing both a public and private site that individual breeders can use to manage and analyze their breeding program data while also leveraging the publicly available GGB data in their decision-making. In this presentation the role of CottonGen for research is explored and future plans elaborated. CottonGen is directly supported by Cotton Incorporated, USDA-ARS, the cotton industry, NIFA USDA NRSP10, US Land Grant Universities and indirectly by NSF and USDA SCRI awards.