CottonGen: a genomics, genetics and breeding database for cotton research

CottonGen (http://www.cottongen.org) is a curated and integrated web-based relational database providing access to publicly available genomic, genetic and breeding data for cotton. CottonGen supercedes CottonDB and the Cotton Marker Database, with enhanced tools for easier data sharing, mining, visualization and data retrieval of cotton research data. CottonGen contains annotated whole genome sequences, unigenes from expressed sequence tags (ESTs), markers, trait loci, genetic maps, genes, taxonomy, germplasm, publications and communication resources for the cotton community. Annotated whole genome sequences of Gossypium raimondii are available with aligned genetic markers and transcripts. These whole genome data can be accessed through genome pages, search tools and GBrowse, a popular genome browser. Most of the published cotton genetic maps can be viewed and compared using CMap, a comparative map viewer, and are searchable via map search tools. Search tools also exist for markers, quantitative trait loci (QTLs), germplasm, publications and trait evaluation data. CottonGen also provides online analysis tools such as NCBI BLAST and Batch BLAST.