The NCKU OrchidBase
                
                
                
                    Development and Goals
                
                    As one of the largest and most
                                diverse of the angiosperm families [1], the
                                family Orchidaceae the 25,000–35,000 species are of ecological and evolutionary
                                importance. Like all other living organisms,
                                present-day orchids have evolved from ancestral forms as a result of selection pressure
                                and adaptation. They
                                show a wide diversity of epiphytic and terrestrial growth forms and have successfully
                                colonized almost every
                                habitat on Earth. Specific interaction between orchid flowers and pollinators [2],
                                sequential and rapid interplay
                                between drift and natural selection [3], the role of obligate orchid–mycorrhizal
                                interactions [4], and epiphytism
                                may all contribute to the species richness within the Orchidaceae.
                
                
                    
                        The radiation of the orchid family probably took place in a
                            comparatively short period in comparison to that of most flowering plant
                            families, which had already started to diversify in the Mid-Cretaceous [5]. The
                            time of origin of orchids is in dispute, although Dressler suggested that they
                            originated 80 to 40 million years ago (late Cretaceous to late Eocene). Perhaps
                            the only general statement that can be made about the origin of orchids is that
                            most extant groups are probably very young. Recently, the origin of the
                            Orchidaceae was dated using a fossil orchid and its pollinator; the authors [6]
                            showed that the most recent common ancestor of extant orchids lived in the late
                            Cretaceous (76-84 Mya).
                        
                    
                    
                         According
                        to molecular phylogenetic studies, Orchidaceae comprise five subfamilies,
                        including Apostasioideae, Cypripedioideae, Vanilloideae, Orchidoideae and
                        Epidendroideae.
                    
                     
                     
                    
                        They are known for their diversity of specialized reproductive
                        and ecological strategies. For successful reproduction, the production of
                        labellum and gynostemium (a fused structure of androecium and gynoecium) to
                        facilitate pollination is well documented and the co-evolution of orchid flowers
                        and pollinators is well known [7-8]. In addition, mature pollen grains packaged
                        as pollinia, pollination-regulated ovary/ovule development, synchronized timing
                        of micro- and mega-gametogenesis for effective fertilization, and the release of
                        thousands or millions of immature embryos (seeds without endosperm) in a mature
                        capsule may also account for the especially successful evolutionary progress of
                        orchids [9]. However, despite their unique developmental reproductive biology,
                        as well as specialized pollination and ecological strategies, orchids remain
                        under-represented in molecular studies relative to other species-rich plant
                        families [10].
                    
                         Orchids are one of the most
                        ecological and evolutionary significant plants, and the Orchidaceae is one
                        of the most abundant families in angiosperm. The genetic databases will be useful not only for
                        gene discovery
                        but future genomic annotation. For this purpose, OrchidBase was established for providing
                        sequenced orchid
                        genome information as well as transcriptomes collected from various tissues of different orchid
                        species.
                        OrchidBase architecture is composed of a web interface, a SQL Server database management system
                        and
                        a windows application. The web interface is implemented in static HTML pages and the latest .NET
                        (Microsoft .NET framework 4.62) software technology. The OrchidBase was developed in part on the
                        basis of
                        Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture principles. More specifically, the solution was
                        developed by using
                        the ASP.NET MVC 4 framework and coded with Visual C# programming language, which is dynamically
                        executed for querying the database. IIS 6.0 on the Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Standard is
                        adopted for
                        main system operation. Genome Browser is visualized under Apache web Server on the Ubuntu 16.04.
                        In
                        addition, based on XML and simple object access protocol (SOAP) Web Services, the system also
                        offers a
                        web-service interface. For storing and managing collected sequence information and the
                        annotation data, the
                        SQL Server 2012 system is adopted. The windows application executes a sequence analysis, and
                        Perl and
                        the C# program are applied to automatically parse data and construct the database. A number of
                        open
                        source tools and technologies were used for improving database coverage, the user interface and
                        system
                        performance. The interactive data visualization web page is based on D3 and ASP.NET MVC. For
                        building a
                        web-based visualization and presenting data in an interactive and convenient way with maximum
                        compatibility, D3.js, the powerful JavaScript toolkit, was applied to create cross-platform
                        vector graphics. The
                        JBrowse is applied to navigate orchid genomes. JBrowse is the AJAX-based browsers helping
                        preserve the
                        user's sense of location by avoiding discontinuous transitions, instead offering smoothly
                        animated panning,
                        zooming, navigation, and track selection. Consequently, the establishment of OrchidBase will
                        provide
                        researchers a high-quality genetic resource for data-mining and facilitate efficient
                        experimental studies on
                        orchid biology and biotechnology.
                    
                
                
                    Reference:
                
                
                    1.Atwood JT:The size
                        of Orchidaceae and the systematic distribution of epiphytic orchids.Selbyana
                        1986,9:171-186.
                
                
                    2.Cozzolino S, Widmer
                        A: Orchid diversity: an evolutionary consequence of deception? Trends in Ecology
                        & Evolution 2005, 20:487-494.
                
                
                    3.Tremblay RL,
                        Ackerman JD, Zimmerman JK, Calvo RN: Variation in sexual reproduction in orchids
                        and its evolutionary consequence: a spasmodic journey to diversification.
                        Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 2005, 84:1-54.
                
                
                    4.Otero JT, 
                            Flanagan
                            NS
                        : Orchid
                        diversity – beyond deception. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 2006, 21:64-65.
                    
                
                
                    5.Crane PR, Friis EM,
                        Pedersen KR: The origin and early diversification of angiosperms. Nature 1995,
                        374:27-33.
                
                
                    6.Ramirez SR,
                        Gravendeel B, Singer RB, Marshall CR, 
                            
                                Pierce
                            NE
                        : Dating the origin of the Orchidaceae from
                        a fossil orchid with its pollinator.Nature 2007, 448:1042-1045.
                
                
                    7.Yu H, Goh CJ:
                        Molecular genetics of reproductive biology in orchids. Plant Physiol 2001,
                        127:1390-1393.
                
                
                    8.Schiestl FP, Peakall
                        R, Mant JG, Ibarra F, Schulz C, Franke S, Francke W: The chemistry of sexual deception in an
                        orchid-wasp pollination system.Science 2003, 302:437-438.
                
                
                    9.Tsai WC, Hsiao YY,
                        Pan ZJ, Kuoh CS, Chen WH, Chen HH: The role of ethylene in orchid ovule development. Plant Sci
                        2008, 175:98-105.
                
                
                    10.Peakall R: Speciation in the
                        Orchidaceae: confronting the challenges. Molecular Ecology 2007, 16:2834-2837.
                
                
                
                
                
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