Panzea: an update on new content and features

Panzea (http://www.panzea.org), the public web site of the project ‘Molecular and Functional Diversity in the Maize Genome’, has expanded over the past two years in data content, display tools and informational sections. The most significant data content expansions occurred for the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), sequencing, isozyme and phenotypic data types. We have enhanced our existing web display tools and have launched a number of new tools for data display and analysis. For example, we have implemented one that allows users to find polymorphisms between two accessions, a geographic map tool to visualize the geographic distribution of SNPs, simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and isozyme alleles and a graphical view of the placement of Panzea markers and genes/loci on genetic and physical maps. One goal of the informatics component of our project has been to generate code that can be used by other groups. We have enhanced our existing code base and have made our new tools available. Finally, we have also made available new informational sections as part of our educational and outreach efforts.