Phenotypes as an Organizing Principle at SoyBase and LegumeInfo Databases

Phenotypes are physical manifestations of genotypic interactions commonly referred to as “Traits”.  For many species, especially understudied plants and animals, much of the genotypic information is known only from genetic studies, meaning that all that is known is that a gene conferring a phenotype (trait) exists and has been approximately located on a genetic map of the organism.  Often times there is no associated sequence information about the genetically identified gene. Thus, the ability to project phenotypes from more-studied species to less-studied ones may allow researchers to more intelligently utilize limited funds to investigate the molecular basis of the phenotype in their species.  This will, in turn, facilitate marker-assisted breeding in their species for genetic improvement.  To this end the USDA-ARS Legume Clade Database group has been employing the Soybean Trait Ontology developed by the SoyBase group (SoyBase.org) to describe traits in the Legume species included in the Legume Information System (LIS, LegumeInfo.org) and PeanutBase.org.  A description of this process and its use will be presented.