Involving community in genes and pathway curation

Area of Science:

• Biology
• Genomics
• Bioinformatics

Background:

• Biocuration is essential for biological databases and systems-level platforms handling 'Big Data'.
• The rapid increase in omics data production outpaces current biocuration efforts, creating a bottleneck in genomics.
• Developing effective strategies for omics data annotation and analysis is critical.

Purpose of the Study:

• To test strategies for involving researchers in pathway curation.
• To leverage biologist expertise for curating plant pathways.
• To establish a network of community biocurators for advancing biological databases.

Main Methods:

• Two pathway curation jamborees were organized by Plant Reactome curators.
• Researchers were introduced to pathway curation tools and workflows.
• Biologists' expertise was harnessed for curating plant-specific pathways.

Main Results:

• Successful engagement of researchers in pathway curation activities.
• Demonstrated feasibility of developing a network of community biocurators.
• Identified effective strategies for training and integrating new biocurators.

Conclusions:

• Community biocuration is a viable strategy to address the bottleneck in omics data processing.
• Harnessing community expertise can significantly advance biological databases and genomic resources.
• Establishing networks of biocurators is crucial for sustainable data management in genomics.