Rice Bioinformatics: From Sequences to Applications

Rice genomics data are rapidly expanding in number and complexity. This is further intensified as the international collaboration aimed at sequencing the entire genome accelerates the release of sequence data to the public domain. An overview of available resources for processing, elucidating and propagating genomic information in rice is described here. As the genome sequencing nears its completion, the future challenges in rice bioinformatics lies in developing an informatics infrastructure that would facilitate integration across various data types and sources, and eventually lead to the development of viable strategies for improvement of rice and other major cereal crops.