The National BioResource Project (NBRP) was launched by the Japanese government (The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) in 2002 with the objective of collecting, conserving and distributing such valuable, independent resources and making them easily available for the larger research community. At present, the NBRP is a consortium of 29 core facilities of animal, plant, microorganisms, and DNA resources, and an information center. As a part of this project, the L. japonicus and G. max program was developed beginning at the end of 2003. Lotus japonicus is a perennial legume that grows naturally throughout Japan and is widely used as a model plant for legumes because of such advantages as its small genome size and short life cycle. On the other hand, soybean (Glycine max) is one of the most important grain legume crops worldwide for its useful seed components such as protein, oil and secondary metabolites and consequently, has been utilized for a large number of basic and applied research investigations.
We have developed database site, called “LegumeBase” a specialized for the genera Lotus and Glycine, and are maintaining this database as a part of the NBRP. Here we will provide an overview of the Lotus and Glycine resources available from “LegumeBase”.