Abstract
Cucurbitaceae is a very large and diverse plant family, comprising several economically important crops such as cucumber (Cucumis sativus), melon (Cucumis melo), watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) and squash/pumpkin (Cucurbita spp.). As the rise of genomic research, the genomes of the first three major cucurbits have been sequenced and well annotated, while squash and pumpkin have pre-publication genome sequences available online. Genetic and transcriptomic research in cucurbit crops have also increased exponentially in the last two decades. Web-based databases have been developed to store, manage and provide access to the vast amount of genetic and genomic data. In this chapter, we describe most-current cucurbit databases and several other databases useful for cucurbit genomic research. Most importantly, the family-wide cucurbit genomics database (CuGenDB, http://www.icugi.org) is a comprehensive up-to-date repository of genetic, genomic and related resources for all four major cucurbits. CuGenDB provides browsing, searching and downloading services for the genomes of cucumber and watermelon, ESTs and genetic maps for all four cucurbits, and associated data mining tools. In future, the cucurbit databases will not only store more genomes and associated resources, but also provide users better services, such as fast data updates, easy data access, and powerful tools for sequence visualization, retrieval and analysis.
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Bai, Y., Zhang, Z., Fei, Z. (2016). Databases and Bioinformatics for Cucurbit Species. In: Grumet, R., Katzir, N., Garcia-Mas, J. (eds) Genetics and Genomics of Cucurbitaceae. Plant Genetics and Genomics: Crops and Models, vol 20. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/7397_2016_27
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