Xiaojuan Ran;Tengfei Tang;Meiyue Wang;Luhuan Ye;Yili Zhuang;Fei Zhao;Yijing Zhan

National Key Laboratory of Plant Molecular Genetics, CAS Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences, Shanghai Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China; School of Life Science, Henan University, Kaifeng, China; University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China; University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, Chin

Bread wheat;Chinese Spring;Chromatin state;Database;Epigenetic

A chromosome-level genome assembly of the bread wheat variety Chinese Spring (CS) has recently been published. Genome-wide identification of regulatory elements (REs) responsible for regulating gene activity is key to further mechanistic studies. Because epigenetic activity can reflect RE activity, defining chromatin states based on epigenomic features is an effective way to detect REs. Here, we present the web-based platform Chinese Spring chromatin state (CSCS), which provides CS chromatin signature information. CSCS includes 15 recently published epigenomic data sets including open chromatin and major chromatin marks, which are further partitioned into 15 distinct chromatin states. CSCS curates detailed information about these chromatin states, with trained self-organization mapping (SOM) for segments in all chromatin states and JBrowse visualization for genomic regions or genes. Motif analysis for genomic regions or genes, GO analysis for genes and SOM analysis for new epigenomic data sets are also integrated into CSCS. In summary, the CSCS database contains the combinatorial patterns of chromatin signatures in wheat and facilitates the detection of functional elements and further clarification of regulatory activities. We illustrate how CSCS enables biological insights using one example, demonstrating that CSCS is a highly useful resource for intensive data mining. CSCS is available at http://bioinfo.cemps.ac.cn/CSCS/.