FAWMine: An integrated database and analysis platform for fall armyworm genomics

Fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda), a native insect species in the Americas, is rapidly becoming a major agricultural pest worldwide and is causing great damage to corn, rice, soybeans, and other crops. To control this pest, scientists have accumulated a great deal of high-throughput data of fall armyworm, and nine versions of its genomes and transcriptomes have been published. However, easily accessing and performing integrated analysis of these omics data sets is challenging. Here, we developed the Fall Armyworm Genome Database (FAWMine, http://159.226.67.243:8080/fawmine/) to maintain genome sequences, structural and functional annotations, transcriptomes, co-expression, protein interactions, homologs, pathways, and single-nucleotide variations. FAWMine provides a powerful framework that helps users to perform flexible and customized searching, present integrated data sets using diverse visualization methods, output results tables in a range of file formats, analyze candidate gene lists using multiple widgets, and query data available in other InterMine systems. Additionally, stand-alone JBrowse and BLAST services are also established, allowing the users to visualize RNA-Seq data and search genome and annotated gene sequences. Altogether, FAWMine is a useful tool for querying, visualizing, and analyzing compiled data sets rapidly and efficiently. FAWMine will be continually updated to function as a community resource for fall armyworm genomics and pest control research.