Informatics Modules from BAR

The Bio-Array Resource (BAR) is one of the top four plant bioinformatics resources in the world; its suite of tools is used by 13,000 researchers from more than half the countries in the world. However, the rapid increase in both volume and types of data necessitates the integration of BAR data into an international framework of plant data providers. The BAR will contribute seven data and visualization modules to the AIP by building on highly used BAR tools like the eFP Browser, Expressolog Tree Viewer, and Arabidopsis Interactions Viewer. A zoomable user interface (ZUI) will be developed to allow for the seamless viewing of large data sets across several levels of biological organization. This ZUI can be used by multiple AIP modules, not just those provided by the BAR. For example, the ZUI will be used for comparative genomics to view VEGI and BMAP data to identify sites of positive selection and of conserved non-coding regions in the crucifers. RNA-Seq data can also be visualized in the ZUI for identification of alternative splicing sites. The ZUI will integrate several layers of data such that when looking at a coding sequence, the predicted location of amino acids on the corresponding tertiary structure can be identified (e.g. if they are on the surface of the protein). In all proposed modules, users will be able to upload and explore their own data alone or in the context of data available at the AIP.