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.

The Crop EST Database (CR-EST) is a public available online resource providing access to sequence, classification, clustering, and annotation data of crop EST projects at the IPK.

Passport data, based on the FAO/IPGRI EURISCO-Descriptors list, document about 5000 accessions. Several species (41), originating from almost 57 countries, are represented by advanced and primitive cultivars, breeding material, landraces, weedy and wild material.