PlantGATA: a comprehensive database for plant GATA transcription factors
摘要
Plant GATA transcription factors (TFs) are a conserved family of regulatory proteins characterized by a GATA zinc finger (CX2CX18-20CX2C) that binds WGATAR (W = A/T, R = A/G) motifs. The growing availability of plant genome resources has facilitated large-scale comparative analyses of GATA TFs, underscoring the need for systematic cross-species characterization. However, most existing studies remain manual and methodologically heterogeneous, limiting the scalability, consistency, and interpretability of comparative analyses. To address these challenges, this study presents PlantGATA (https://plantgata.vercel.app/), a comprehensive database built on a standardized pipeline that curates 13,969 GATA TFs (11,109 loci) from 374 plant genomes spanning 174 species, 124 genera, 63 families, 40 orders, and 12 taxonomic groups. The database offers interactive genome-wide browsers for cross-species comparison of GATA TF repertoires, integrating multi-level structural and functional features within a hierarchical taxonomic framework. In addition, PlantGATA integrates curated reference resources, including 16 experimentally validated GATA TFs, 700 high-confidence functionally annotated GATA TFs, and 65 genome-wide GATA TF identification studies, establishing a robust framework for functional classification and comparative genomics. Collectively, PlantGATA provides an integrated platform for structural and functional analysis of plant GATA TFs, supporting efficient large-scale comparative research.