The National BioResource Project (NBRP) Lotus and Glycine in Japan

The objective of the National BioResource Project (NBRP) in Japan is to collect, conserve and distribute biological materials for life sciences research. The project consists of twenty-eight bioresources, including animal, plant, microorganism and DNA resources. NBRP Lotus and Glycine aims to support the development of legume research through the collection, conservation, and distribution of these bioresources. Lotus japonicus is a perennial legume that grows naturally throughout Japan and is widely used as a model plant for legumes because of such advantages as its small genome size and short life cycle. Soybean (Glycine max) has been cultivated as an important crop since ancient times, and numerous research programs have generated a large amount of basic research information and valuable bioresources for this crop. We have also developed a “LegumeBase” a specialized database for the genera Lotus and Glycine, and are maintaining this database as a part of the NBRP. In this paper we will provide an overview of the resources available from the NBRP Lotus and Glycine database site, called “LegumeBase”.     

Collection,preservation and distribution of Oryza genetic resources by the National Bioresource Project RICE (NBRP-RICE)

Biological resources are the basic infrastructure of bioscience research. Rice (Oryza sativa L.) is a good experimental model for research in cereal crops and monocots and includes important genetic materials used in breeding. The availability of genetic materials, including mutants, is important for rice research. In addition, Oryza species are attractive to researchers for both finding useful genes for breeding and for understanding the mechanism of genome evolution that enables wild plants to adapt to their own habitats. NBRP-RICE contributes to rice research by promoting the usage of genetic materials, especially wild Oryza accessions and mutant lines. Our activity includes collection, preservation and distribution of those materials and the provision of basic information on them, such as morphological and physiological traits and genomic information. In this review paper, we introduce the activities of NBRP-RICE and our database, Oryzabase, which facilitates the access to NBRP-RICE resources and their genomic sequences as well as the current situation of wild Oryza genome sequencing efforts by NBRP-RICE and other institutes.