iDarwin AS 0021 (2021 AD)

Volume 1

AnnouncemeniDarwin volume 1, page 56-5
Published on April 5, AS 0021 (2021 AD)

Asia Genome Tao Center (AGTC)SAITOU Naruy
Population Genetics Laboratory, National Institute of Genetics (Main appointment
School of Medicine, University of the Ryukyu
Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, University to Toky
Department of Genetics, School of Life Science, Graduate University for Advanced Studie
1111 Yata, Mishima, 411-8540, Japa
Email: saitounr@nig.ac.jpso).

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Genome sequence data are now essential for any study in biology. There are several integrated genome databases at this moment; NCBI genome
database (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genome/) is the most comprehensive one, followed by Ensembl (https://www.ensembl.org/), UCSC GenomeBrowser (https://genome.ucsc.edu) and GOLD (https://gold.jgi.doe.gov/index); see Chapter 14 of SAITOU (2018). China National Center forBioinformation (https://bigd.big.ac.cn) provides list of databases, and some of them are related to genome sequences; e.g., Genome Sequence Archive(https://bigd.big.ac.cn/gsa/) and Genome Warehouse (https://bigd.big.ac.cn/gwh/). KEGG (https://www.genome.jp/kegg/genome.html) in Japan also
provide ~7,000 genome data.
In 1980s when nucleotide sequence data have been increasingly published in many journals, EBI, NCBI, and DDBJ formed “International
Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration (INSDC)” (http://www.insdc.org). Even now, ENA (European Nucleotide Archive; https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ena/browser/home), GenBank (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genbank/), and DDBJ (https://www.ddbj.nig.ac.jp/index-e.html) arecollaborating, but mainly circulating short nucleotide sequences. EBI has been involved in maintaining Ensembl with Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute(https://www.sanger.ac.uk), and NCBI has been championing its own genome database. I was DDBJ staff during 1991 A.D. - AS 0009 (2009 A.D.),and proposed to set up genome database within DDBJ, but I got no support from other DDBJ staff. At this moment, DDBJ does not provide any
genome database. It should be noted that INSDC provides short sequence read archive; for example “Sequence Read Archive” of DDBJ (https://www.ddbj.nig.ac.jp/dra/index.html). In fact, we submitted our capybara draft genome short read data to DDBJ under the Bioproject accession
PRJDB7394 (BABARINDE and SAITOU 2020)
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Last year, AS 0020 (2020 A.D.) was centennial of genome concept, proposed by Hans WINKLER (1920). We hosted Genome Concept
Centennial Conference online during February 15-17, AS 0021, though it was originally scheduled to be held during August 23-25, AS 0020 (IKEOand SAITOU 0020). Incidentally, Dr. INOUE Jun, who was in my laboratory for one year, created dbCNS (http://yamasati.nig.ac.jp/dbcns/), andpublished paper based on this database (INOUE and SAITOU 2020). After he left to Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute at the University ofTokyo, Dr. Kirill KRYUKOV joined my laboratory. He started GenomeSync (http://genomesync.org) in AS 0015. I came up with idea to open new
platform of genome-oriented databases maintained by researchers in Asia. I asked permission to Dr. INOUE Jun and Dr. Kirill KRYUKOV to havelinks to dbCNS and GenomeSync, respectively. It should be noted that Dr. INOUE and Dr. KRYUKOV joined associate editor of iDarwin in AS 0020
and AS 0021, respectively
In any case, I named this platform as “Asia Genome Tao Center" <webpage>. Its acronym, AGTC, can also mean four bases of DNA. There isno need to explain three words; Asia, Genome, and Center. Problem may exist in “Tao”. Tao (道) literally means “road”, but in Japanese, it is often
used for some activity connected to philosophical thinking, such as 茶道, 剣道, 華道, 柔道, 弓道, and 合気道 (Tao of tea ceremony, Tao of swordghting, Tao of ower arranging, Tao of judo, Tao of Japanese archery, and Tao of aikido, respectively). This philosophical connection most probably
originated from Taoism in China. So why not “Genome Tao”? This can give some philosophical avor to genome-related researches. Of course, I justfound “Tao” as good word to give “T” as one of four DNA bases. Below is current logo of AGTC. I may change this logo in future. At last I partially
ful lled my dream to start genome database in Asia. In future, I hope many more genome-oriented databases maintained by researchers in Asia will beadded to AGTC. By this way, AGTC will be useful for many people not only in Asia but worldwideReference.

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Isaac BABSARINDE and SAITOU Naruya (2020) The dynamics, causes, and impacts of mammalian evolutionary rates revealed by the analyses ofcapybara draft genome sequences. Genome Biology and Evolution, vol. 12, pp. 1444–1458. <webpage
IKEO Kazuho and SAITOU Naruya (0020) Genome Concept Centennial Symposium. iDarwin, vol. 0, pp. 12-18. <webpage
INOUE Jun and SAITOU Naruya (2020) dbCNS: a new database for conserved noncoding sequences. Molecular Biology and Evolution, advanced
access. <webpage
SAITOU Naruya (2018) Introduction to Evolutionary Genomics Second Edition. Springer. <webpage
Hans WINKLER (1920) Verbreitung und Ursache der Parthenogenesis im P anzen - und Tierreiche. Verlag Fischer, Jena. <webpage==========================================================================================================Publication history of this articl
March 31, AS 0021: Original manuscript was submitted from SAITOU Naruya to iDarwin (reviewed by Dr. INOUE Ituro
March 31, AS 0021: Review result was sent from Dr. INOUE Ituro to SAITO
April 1, AS 0021: Revision was sent from SAITOU to Dr. INOUE Itur
April 5, AS 0021: Revision was accepted by Dr. INOUE Itur
April 5, AS 0021: This article is published in iDarwi
April 6, AS 0021: Some typos, indicated by Dr. Kirill Kryukov, were corrected=>>)

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