CorrDB: A Livestock Animal Genetic/Phenotypic Trait Correlation Database

Genetic and phenotypic trait correlation studies have been conducted for almost 70 years. A phenotypic correlation is the degree to which two traits co-vary among individuals in a population; A genetic correlation is the proportion of shared variances between two traits due to genetic causes.  In the genomics era, while the gene expression, genetic association, and networked analysis provide un-precedent means to decode the genetic basis of complex phenotypes, it will be important to be cognizant of possible effects on other traits should genetic progress be made in another.  Furthermore genetic/phenotypic trait correlation database should help to facilitate genetic network analysis and system biology studies.  The CorrDB (http://www.animalgenome.org/CorrDB/) was designed to collect all published livestock genetic/phenotypic correction data published to date. The database was developed on MySQL DBMS. The user and curator interfaces were programmed in perl CGI and PHP. We have emphasized capabilities to dynamically link to external databases on genes and traits such that tools may be built for potential data integration and analysis. Currently, this database has an initial collection of 3,635 correlations on 238 cattle traits, relating to meat production, milk production, growth, health, etc.  This correlation data was curated from 143 journal papers. Our long-term goal is to make it part of the integrated functional genomics resources for all livestock animals.