Morokoshi sorghum database upgraded

April 1, 2015

A platform database that could accelerate biomass research

RIKEN CSRS researchers have revised and upgraded the Morokoshi (sorghum) database, first made public partially in June 2014. Full-length cDNA has been re-analyzed and graph visualization added for the coexpression network. Additionally, a sorghum transcriptome database has been made public.

Next-generation sequencers were used for the transcriptome analysis from a combination of 26 datasets from the research group and publicly available data, providing gene expression patterns in various conditions and for various tissues.

The aim of the researchers is to contribute to the identification of new genes through comprehensive coexpression analysis focusing on existing metabolic genes, since genes in the same metabolic system are likely to have similar expression patterns.

The Morokoshi database can be used for research on sorghum and closely related plants such as sugarcane and maize. The database can also serve as a platform to further accelerate biomass research.

Around 40,000 Full-length sorghum cDNA clones are available from the RIKEN BioResource Center.

Original article
Plant and Cell Physiology doi: 10.1093/pcp/pcu187
Y. Makita, S. Shimada, M. Kawashima, T. Kondou-Kuriyama, T. Toyoda, M. Matsui,
"MOROKOSHI: Transcriptome Database in Sorghum bicolor".
Contact
Minami Matsui
Group Director
Biomass Engineering Program Cooperation Division Synthetic Genomics Research Group