MAdLand computational resources for the Plant community

Molecular Adaptation to Land: plant evolution to change (MAdLand) is a DFG-funded research consortium which explores the molecular mechanism behind the transition of plants and algae from water to land. Deepti Varshney and Dr. Saskia Hiltemann from the University of Freiburg gave a talk about the MAdLand Resources and Tools during the second day of the meeting. In this workshop, they presented the Galaxy, a free and open-source web-based platform for conducting data-intensive life science research. The Galaxy Training Network (GTN) was introduced to the audience, highlighting its application for teaching and performing data analysis on real biological datasets. As an example, the MAdLandDB (also known as the Genome Zoo) was used to demonstrate the application of a high quality, community curated protein sequence database of non-seed plants and streptophyte algae for sequence similarity search using tools such as BLAST and Diamond on the usegalaxy.eu as well as educational material available on the GTN. Another tool introduced during the workshop was TAPscan v4, available via the usegalaxy.eu portal as well for genome-wide annotation of plant transcription-associated proteins including both transcription factors and transcriptional regulators. In addition to this, the DataPLANT Research Data Management (RDM) platform which supports the generation of Annotated Research Contexts (ARCs) was presented. ARCs are a RO-Crate implementation and provide an easy-to-use way to bundle plant research data in a FAIR and citeable way. DataPLANT ensures that all research data, including raw data and metadata, is encapsulated in a FAIR, open, and standardized format. During the talk, a live demonstration was also conducted, showcasing the usage of Galaxy and above mentioned MAdLand resources. This interactive session successfully captured the audience’s attention.