The PlantProm: A Database of Plant Promoter Sequences (Release 2016)

Knowledge on promoter sequences and their characteristics is crucial for improving our basic understanding of gene regulation. In 2003, we launched the PlantProm database of 305 plant proximal promoter sequences for RNA polymerase II with experimentally determined transcription start site (TSS). Here, we present a new release of the PlantProm database that contains 576 entries including 150, 403 and 23 promoters of monocot, dicot and other plant genes, respectively, as well as highthroughput annotated and predicted promoters for five plant genomes. The database provides DNA sequences of promoters and their taxonomic/promoter type classification, occurrence of sequence motifs of known plant transcription factor binding sites in promoters, Nucleotide Frequency Matrices for two important promoter elements as TATA-box and Initiator element. In addition, the database includes computationally predicted TSS for 22,257 genes of Oryza sativa, 23,334 genes of Zea mays, 18,226 genes of Medicago truncatula, 38,702 genes of Glycine max and 11,037 genes of Vitis vinifera. The PlantProm DB is publicly available on http://www.softberry.com/plantprom2016/.