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Volume 4

Full article

PathoPlant^®: A Database on Plant-Pathogen Interactions

Lorenz Bülow¹*, Martin Schindler¹, Claudia Choi², and Reinhard Hehl¹

¹ Institute for Genetics, Technical University of Braunschweig, Spielmannstraße 7, D-38106 Braunschweig, Germany
² BIOBASE GmbH, Halchtersche Straße 33, D-38304 Wolfenbüttel, Germany

^* Corresponding author; Email: l.buelow@tu-braunschweig.de


Edited by E. Wingender; received September 03, 2004; accepted September 16, 2004; published October 02, 2004

Abstract

Pathogen recognition and signal transduction during plant pathogenesis is essential for the activation of plant defense mechanisms. To facilitate easy access to published data and to permit comparative studies of different pathogen response pathways, a database is indispensable to give a broad overview of the components and reactions so far known. PathoPlant^® has been developed as a relational database to display relevant components and reactions involved in signal transduction related to plant-pathogen interactions. On the organism level, the tables 'plant', 'pathogen' and 'interaction' are used to describe incompatible interactions between plants and pathogens or diseases. On the molecular level, plant pathogenesis related information is organized in PathoPlant's main tables 'molecule', 'reaction' and 'location'. Signal transduction pathways are modeled as consecutive sequences of known molecules and corresponding reactions. PathoPlant entries are linked to associated internal records as well as to entries in external databases such as SWISS-PROT, GenBank, PubMed, and TRANSFAC^®. PathoPlant is available as a web-based service at http://www.pathoplant.de.

Key words: database, plant, pathogen, phytopathogen, interaction, signal transduction, signal perception, pathway, virulence, resistance, susceptibility, avirulence factor, plant defense