The completion of the chicken genome, combined with genomic data from other birds such as the condor, turkey and zebra finch, provided impetus to develop a model organism database devoted to the taxonomic class: Aves. The goal is to provide a community driven platform that integrates knowledge and facilitates collaboration.
Why Birds? Birds provide model organisms important to the study of neurobiology, evolution, immunology, development, oncology, virology and a variety of other life sciences. Furthermore, many species of birds are important to agriculture, providing an enormous food resource. In this context, genomic approaches are proving invaluable to studying traits that affect meat yield, disease resistance, behavior, and bone development along with many other factors affecting productivity.
Why a Birdbase? Birdbase will prove a centralized resource for avian genomics and other aspects of avian biology and:
- Stimulate scientific advancement by integrating information from a variety of bird species.
- Promote cooperation and collaboration between scientists using different avian species as model organisms.
- Improve the flow of information between scientists using birds as models and those studying agricultural traits of birds.
- Help coordinate solutions to common issues such as gene nomenclature and ontology development.
- Provide a conduit for sharing reagents and protocols.
What are Current Objectives for Birdbase?
- The current Birdbase Genome Browser includes sequences from the chicken, condor, turkey and zebra finch. In the future we hope to extend the species list to include other birds such as the quail.
- Develop GenePages, providing a centralized annotation resource for each gene. See GenePage for an example.
- Coordinate between AgBase and the Reference Genome Project to identify avian orthologs of human disease genes.
