Informatic tools and platforms for enhancing plant R-gene discovery process

The development of pathogen resistant crops is increasingly important in the face of the global climate changes and of the new agriculture requirements. In the past decades, an enormous amount of genomic information has been released. Plant breeders can take advantage of information provided by bioinformatic supports to increase the likelihood of obtaining resistant genotypes. Basic information on resistance genes (R-genes) and resistant genotypes can be recovered in database developed or facilitating scientific literature and genetic resources search. Bioinformatic tools that enable the analysis of the R-gene organization in individual genomes, the detection of genetic diversity in different individuals, the assessment of relationships between genomes and the localization of individual R-genes are also available. Cross investigations of plant expression pattern during pathogen challenge promote several biological observations and discoveries. The accessibility of genetic and genomic resources could be improved by the development of platforms to link and integrate databases and tools. Advanced efforts to build up an integrated crop improvement information network are depicted.