VisuaLRTC: A New View on Lateral Root Initiation by Combining Specific Transcriptome Data Sets

Lateral root initiation and development has been increasingly studied over the last two decades. This postembryonic organogenic process guarantees the spatial development and plasticity of the root system in response to environmental cues and is crucial for the plant's growth and development. Several independent large-scale transcriptome studies in different species resulted in a wealth of data that can be instructive to understand this process at the molecular level. Here, we present an easy and flexible spreadsheet tool, called Visual Lateral Root Transcriptome Compendium, that combines publicly available data sets involved in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) lateral root development and links them with additional information on tissue-specific expression and cell cycle involvement, thus allowing the extraction of novel information from existing data sets in a visual and user-friendly manner. We believe that this tool will be valuable not only for root biologists but also for a broader range of scientists as it enables a fast indication of the potential involvement of a given gene during de novo organogenesis.