MIPS PlantsDB is a database framework for integrative and comparative plant genome research and provides data and information resources for individual plant species (including Medicago, Arabidopsis, Brachypodium, Sorghum, maize, rice, barley and wheat). Building up on that, state-of-the-art comparative genomics tools such as CrowsNest are integrated to visualize and investigate syntenic relationships between monocot genomes.

The Ensembl Genomes project produces genome browsers for important species from across the taxonomic range, using the Ensembl software system. Five sites are now available: Ensembl Bacteria, Ensembl Fungi, Ensembl Metazoa, Ensembl Plants, and Ensembl Protists.

Ensembl Plants includes reference genome assemblies and gene builds for 15 plant species, including functional, comparative, and variation data for important crop species.

We have integrated sequence associated features on the genomes of four species: rice, maize, soybean, and brassica. Features include: genes, transposons and restriction sites, clone information (BACs), genetic markers and maps.

These data are notoriously detached from genomic backbones. Overcome this by collecting and associating the diverse datasets with the genomes, making the associations available via visualisation interfaces. This involved close collaboration with the respective national and trans-national sequencing consortia to obtain key data for each species.