From Arabidopsis to Zea mays, there is a knowledge base – from genes to genomes

In 2022, Genetics Initiated its first annual review of selected knowledge bases. In a continuation of this tradition, this year’s installment will discuss 12 knowledge base updates with an emphasis on economically important plant model organism databases (MODs).

MODs, which first appeared in the 1990s, are sophisticated knowledge bases that aim to organize and integrate heterogeneous published knowledge for species of interest according to FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) principles.

MODs and strain resources in this issue include PomBase for fashion yeast, Schizosaccharomyces pombe (Worker etc 2026); gave Caenorhabditis A special collection produced by the Genetics Center (Wardetc 2025) for XenBase Xenopus laevis And X. Tropical Frog (Chetc 2025) and theArabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR) (Reiseretc 2026) for a non-agricultural plant. These knowledge bases have introduced new tools, updated references, and improved the literature. PomBase has introduced its GO Causal Activity Modeling (GO-CAM) project to link all proteins into pathways, aiming to provide the first curated causal model of a eukaryotic cell. gave Caenorhabditis The Genetics Center’s (CGC’s) first curated special collection is organized around the systems biology of protein degradation (Ward). etc. 2025) and offers an interactive discussion forum in partnership with the Alliance of Genome Resources (AGR).

Six articles update MODs for agriculturally important crops. Green Jeans (Yao etc 2025) provides small grain researchers with data on wheat, barley, rye, and oats. SorghumBase (Gladmanetc 2025) has accelerated the collection of genomic, genetic and phenotypic information developed by the sorghum research community and the sorghum base team. MODs developed by the University of Washington’s Maine Lab Program include a genome database (human) for vaccines. etc 2026), barley blueberry, cranberry, bilberry, and lingonberry, and cotton gin (U. etc 2025).

Campbell etc (2026) describe upgrades to three MODs for the legume community: SoyBase, Legume Information System (LIS), and PeanutBase. These databases are constantly evaluating ways to effectively share data between various semi-independently developed database projects and to anticipate and measure the genomic data tsunami.

The final crop MOD update is for the Maize Genetics and Genomics Database (MaizeGDB) (Haley et al. 2026). MaizeGDB partners with maize researchers to develop public resources, including pangenome data. With artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly replacing bioinformatics and MODs, MaizeGDB is evolving from a classical archive resource to an AI-ready platform.

Two additional community-based resources are Mondo and Cartogra Plant. Mondo (Vasilevsky etc 2025) standardizes disease terminology by bringing together various resources for cancer and Mendelian, common, infectious and rare diseases. Cartograplant (Lond etc 2026) addresses a critical gap linking genotypic, phenotypic, and environmental data from plant individuals in a geographic context to advance insights into plant resilience in light of climate change and increases in invasive pathogens and pests.

All of the aforementioned knowledge bases are striving to future-proof their resources in response to AI and new research tools and methods, as well as fostering collaboration. Despite unstable and dwindling funding, these knowledge centers are rising to the challenges of the future and are increasingly becoming indispensable resources for their communities.