PlnTFDB

PlnTFDB is a comprehensive and user-friendly software tool designed to provide access to large sets of transcription factors of several plant species. The tool is web-based and is accessible through a simple and intuitive interface. The database includes information on protein sequences, coding regions, genomic sequences, and expressed sequence tags (ESTs), as well as scientific literature for each family. The importance of transcription factors (TFs) in regulating biological processes cannot be overemphasized. TFs are key regulatory proteins that enhance or repress the transcriptional rate of their target genes by binding to specific promoter regions (i.e. cis-acting elements) upon activation or de-activation of upstream signaling cascades. This makes TFs the master control elements of dynamic transcriptional networks, and they have fundamental roles in almost all biological processes, such as development, growth, and response to environmental factors. In plants, TFs have been employed to manipulate various types of metabolic, developmental, and stress response pathways. Cross-species comparison and identification of regulatory modules, and hence TFs, is thought to become increasingly important for the rational design of new plant biomass. However, up to now, no computational repository has been available that provides access to the largely complete sets of transcription factors of sequenced plant genomes. PlnTFDB fills this gap by providing an integrative plant transcription factor database that is publicly available through [http://plntfdb.bio.uni-potsdam.de](http://plntfdb.bio.uni-potsdam.de/). The database provides close to complete sets of transcription factors of several plant species, including Arabidopsis thaliana, Populus trichocarpa, Oryza sativa, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, and Ostreococcus tauri. It also provides an access point to its daughter databases of a species-centered representation of transcription factors (OstreoTFDB, ChlamyTFDB, ArabTFDB, PoplarTFDB, and RiceTFDB).