TOGD: A Database of Orphan Genes in Triticum aestivum

Orphan genes, genes without detectable homologous in other lineages, have important biological roles in the environmental adaptation of different species.Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is a globally consumed crop of immense economic importance, but the evolutionary genesis of wheat orphan genes remains poorly elucidated.In this study, 993 orphan genes were identified in the wheat genome by homology searching against 94 representative plant species.The features of these orphan genes (e.g., subcellular location, molecular weight, gene structure, and expression patterns) were characterized and integrated into a specially designed, web-accessible wheat orphan gene database (TOGD; http://togd.ahau-edu.cn/).A flexible search engine was developed with multiple options to allow users to easily extract and visualize datasets.Orphan-gene information returned by this search engine includes chromosome location, putative functions, protein length, guanine and cytosine content, isoelectric point, molecular weight, subcellular location, gene structure, and expression patterns from external databases.A BLAST tool for exploration of homologous of given sequences was also implemented.As there is no available published orphan genes database in wheat, which will help in wheat breeding and seed production through uncovering regulatory mechanisms of orphan genes and may assist in the development of comparative genomics in wheat biology.Therefore, this constructed wheat orphan gene database should serve as a comprehensive bioinformatics platform for functional and evolutionary studies of orphan genes in T. aestivum.