Figure 1.

Three Tiers of Data Resources.

Proposed scope for an information resource to house interpreted biological resources (modified from Parkhill et al., 2010). The lowest and most fundamental tier consists of local databases of specialized data resources run mainly by individual investigators. The second tier provides a layer of consolidation into more durable and useable forms for a larger defined community; an Arabidopsis community portal belongs in this level and is indicated as AIP. The third tier enables cross-species comparisons; this requires an integrated set of diverse resources.