Genomic Databases for Crop Improvement

Genomics is playing an increasing role in plant breeding and this is accelerating with the rapid advances in genome technology. Translating the vast abundance of data being produced by genome technologies requires the development of custom bioinformatics tools and advanced databases. These range from large generic databases which hold specific data types for a broad range of species, to carefully integrated and curated databases which act as a resource for the improvement of specific crops. In this review, we outline some of the features of plant genome databases, identify specific resources for the improvement of individual crops and comment on the potential future direction of crop genome databases.