Tree Genome Databases: A New Era in the Development of Cyber-Infrastructures for Forest Trees

Genomic research is one of the important approaches for sustainable forest management to enhance and mitigate the essential human needs from the forests. However, the genomic researches on the forest tree species in comparison to the other documented plant or crop species are almost negligible. With the advent of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies, number of tree species can be targeted for genome sequencing and diversity among them. Developing genomics-based tools for forest trees with an open access is essential for the rapid advancement of genetic researches in forest species. Several comprehensive databases along with transcriptome and polymorphism resources have been developed for understanding the pattern of evolution and adaptive diversity in forest tree species. The open-access databases for forest trees are discussed in this chapter with details of the cyber protocols followed to develop the cyber-infrastructures. Majority of the tree genome databases, not having independent fund, merge to the bigger generalized databases or often choose to shift from open access to access on payment scenario. This hampers the spread of resources among the scientific communities and hinders the research progress. Adaptation of efficient data management systems and integration of generalized and specialized genomic databases on forest tree species round the globe may aid to solve this problem of sustainability of tree genome databases. A unified robust cyber-infrastructure with updated submission standards and facilities of state-of-art statistical and bioinformatic tools can assist the comparative genomics in forest trees for facilitating the progress of forest genomic researches.