SymGRASS: a database of sugarcane orthologous genes involved in arbuscular mycorrhiza and root nodule symbiosis.

Background: The rationale for gathering information from plants procuring nitrogen through symbiotic interactions controlled by a common genetic program for a sustainable biofuel production is the high energy demanding application of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers. We curated sequence information publicly available for the biofuel plant sugarcane, performed an analysis of the common SYM pathway known to control symbiosis in other plants, and provide results, sequences and literature links as an online database.

Methods: Sugarcane sequences and informations were downloaded from the nucEST database, cleaned and trimmed with seqclean, assembled with TGICL plus translating mapping method, and annotated.