LepBase Ensembl Release 0.5

The LepBase team are pleased to announce the first public beta release of our Lepidoptera-specific Ensembl genome browser at ensembl.lepbase.org

This initial release builds upon the Lepidopteran content already available at metazoa.ensembl.org . While some Lepidoptera are included in Ensembl Metazoa, these species are the sole focus of the LepBase Ensembl instance. At LepBase we hope that this taxon-oriented approach will enable us to deliver comparative genomics resources to meet the specific needs of the Lepidoptera research community.

In this release (version 0.5), we have added the published genome sequence, gene models, and annotations for the diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella (currently not yet available in Ensembl Metazoa). We have also added important content to species already present in Ensembl Metazoa, in particular the NCBI RefSeq gene models for the silkworm, Bombyx mori, and linked annotation terms to gene descriptions to improve text searches for genes of interest.

As a beta release there are some inevitable rough edges and missing features. As we work towards version 1 we are planning to include variation information and update the comparative analyses to offer Lepidopteran-specific orthologues and gene trees.

We want LepBase to be a genuinely useful resource for the Lepidoptera research community so we would welcome any feedback and suggestions for features/content/tools/analyses that would be useful. We are particularly keen to add more genomic content so if you have further sequences, assemblies or annotations that you would like to see included, please get in touch at help@lepbase.org and we can work with you to add them to ensembl.lepbase.org.