Abstract: Pathogen recognition and signal transduction during plant
pathogenesis is essential for the activation of plant defense mechanisms. To
facilitate easy access to published data and to permit comparative studies of
different pathogen response pathways, a database is indispensable to give a
broad overview of the components and reactions so far known. PathoPlant®
has been developed as a relational database to display relevant components and
reactions involved in signal transduction related to plant-pathogen
interactions. On the organism level, the tables 'plant', 'pathogen' and
'interaction' are used to describe incompatible interactions between plants and
pathogens or diseases. On the molecular level, plant pathogenesis related
information is organized in PathoPlant's main tables 'molecule', 'reaction' and
'location'. Signal transduction pathways are modeled as consecutive sequences
of known molecules and corresponding reactions. PathoPlant entries are linked
to associated internal records as well as to entries in external databases such
as SWISS-PROT, GenBank, PubMed, and TRANSFAC®. PathoPlant is available as a
web-based service at http://www.pathoplant.de.
Keywords: database, plant, pathogen, phytopathogen, interaction, signal transduction, signal perception, pathway, virulence, resistance, susceptibility, avirulence factor, plant defense
