New version of Arabidopsis sequence
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Arabidopsis thaliana is a favorite experimental plant with researchers in over 120 countries around the world. The genes, proteins, and other traits of this fast-growing, tiny mustard plant reside in a vast database dubbed the Arabidopsis Information Resource (TAIR) -- and a new version of the genome sequence of this plant has again been released.

The announcement was made by Dr. Eva Huala at Carnegie's Department of Plant Biology, who heads the TAIR group.

The new TAIR9 genome release contains detailed information on all 33,518 genes that make up this tiny plant (including 114 newly discovered genes and 168 new pseudogenes), the proteins produced by these genes, and extensive new experimental and computationally predicted gene-function information.

Huala highlighted the advances: "We now have a ranking system that provides a measure of our confidence that the structure of a specific gene is correct; we've overhauled information on pseudogenes - the evolutionary remnants that start out as copies of conventional protein-coding genes and sometimes take on interesting new functions; and we've made extensive updates to the genome sequence based on new sequence data submitted to TAIR."

More information on the TAIR9 release can be found here.
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