Plant protein-protein interaction networks have not been identified by large-scale experiments. In order to better understand the protein interactions in rice, the Predicted Rice Interactome Network （PRIN; http：//bis.zju.edu.cn/ prin/） presented 76,585 predicted interactions involving 5,049 rice proteins. After mapping genomic features of rice （GO annotation, subcellular localizationprediction, and gene expression）, we found that a well-annotated and biologically significant network is rich enough to capture many significant functional linkages within higher-order biological systems, such as pathways and biological processes. Furthermore, we took MADS-box do- main-containing proteins and circadian rhythm signaling pathways as examples to demonstrate that functional protein complexes and biological pathways could be effectively expanded in our predicted network. The expanded molecular network in PRIN has considerably improved the capability of these analyses to integrate existing knowledge and provide novel insights into the function and coordination of genes and gene networks.
Rice(Oryza sativa) feeds over half of the global population.A web-based integrated platform for rice microarray annotation and data analysis in various biological contexts is presented,which provides a convenient query for comprehensive annotation compared with similar databases.Coupled with existing rice microarray data,it provides online analysis methods from the perspective of bioinformatics.This comprehensive bioinformatics analysis platform is composed of five modules,including data retrieval,microarray annotation,sequence analysis,results visualization and data analysis.The BioChip module facilitates the retrieval of microarray data information via identifiers of "Probe Set ID","Locus ID" and "Analysis Name".The BioAnno module is used to annotate the gene or probe set based on the gene function,the domain information,the KEGG biochemical and regulatory pathways and the potential microRNA which regulates the genes.The BioSeq module lists all of the related sequence information by a microarray probe set.The BioView module provides various visual results for the microarray data.The BioAnaly module is used to analyze the rice microarray's data set.
CHEN DiJunZHANG FanYUAN ChunHuiLU JingLI XiaCHEN Ming
A workshop on ＂Chips, Computers and Crops＂ was held in Hangzhou, China during September 26-27, 2008. The main objective of the workshop was to bring together China and UK scientists from mathematics, bioinformatics and plant molecular biology communities to exchange ideas, enhance awareness of each others＇ fields, explore synergisms and make recommendations on fruitful future directions in crop science. Here we describe the contributions to the workshop, and examine some conceptual issues that lie at the foundations and future of crop systems biology.
