FlaxDB: A Comprehensive and Integrated Genome and Breeding Database for Flax Improvement

Flax (Linum utisitatissimum) is an important crop in Canadian agriculture for its dual utilization of seed oil and stem fibre. The Canadian government and other stakeholders invested nearly 12 million dollars to fund the TUFGEN (Total Utilization Flax GENomics) project (http://linum.ca) (2009-2014). This project and other flax research teams have generated a large amount of genomic and phenotypic resources. A central knowledgebase of these resources is needed to ensure efficient application for flax genetic study and cultivar development. The FlaxDB and its web applications (http://probes.pw.usda.gov/flaxdb/) are being developed based on Tripal (http://tripal.info/) that bridges GMOD Chado (a biological database schema) and Drupal (a content management system). The FlaxDB contains integrated and organized information on flax genomics, breeding and production, and provide users with user-friendly interfaces to facilitate information search including annotated whole genome sequences, genes, unigenes (ESTs), markers (SSRs and SNPs), quantitative trait loci (QTL), genetic maps,  pedigrees, publications, trait evaluation data and community resources for flax with search tools and a  download page. The FlaxDB also provides online analysis tools such as CMap, GBrowser, NCBI BLAST and Batch BLAST. The flax genetic maps can be viewed and compared using CMap, a comparative map viewer, and are searchable via map search tools. The FlaxDB will also provide an evaluation and selection tool for flax breeding parents based on genome-wide genomic information to help plant breeders select parents for hybridization based on breeding goals. This database and web tools will assist private and public plant breeders to more efficiently develop new and elite cultivars.