Abstract: ppdb (http://ppdb.agr.gifu-u.ac.jp) is a plant promoter database that provides information on transcription start sites (TSSs), core promoter structure (TATA boxes, Initiators, Y Patches, GA and CA elements) and regulatory element groups (REGs) as putative and comprehensive transcriptional regulatory elements. Since the last report in this journal, the database has been updated in three areas to version 3.0. First, new genomes have been included in the database, and now ppdb provides information on Arabidopsis thaliana, rice, Physcomitrella patens and poplar. Second, new TSS tag data (34 million) from A. thaliana, determined by a high throughput sequencer, has been added to give a ∼200-fold increase in TSS data compared with version 1.0. This results in a much higher coverage of ∼27 000 A. thaliana genes and finer positioning of promoters even for genes with low expression levels. Third, microarray data-based predictions have been appended as REG annotations which inform their putative physiological roles

Useful resources in nature have ever been screened based solely on actual experiences of mankind since a long time, and this is true even at this moment when our science has greatly advanced. New useful materials are urgently demanded to be sought in nature by human beings, for they have a rapid increase of their population as well as rapid diversification of their life style. In reply to such a heavy pressure, more effective way is to be found out in introducing useful materials supplied more safely to mankind. To establish a reliable guide in screening unknown materials from the wild plants, it is expected to have more certain system of biodiversity. If we will known correct relationships among plant species and sufficient information in each species, it will be possible to infer what materials are in which species.