rat genome database rat genome database the rat genome database (rgd) is a database of rat genomics, genetics, physiology and functional data, as well as data for comparative genomics between rat, human and mouse. rgd is responsible for attaching biological information to the rat genome via structured vocabulary, or ontology, annotations assigned to genes and quantitative trait loci (qtl), and for consolidating rat strain data and making it available to the research community. they are also developing a suite of tools for mining and analyzing genomic, physiologic and functional data for the rat, and comparative data for rat, mouse, human, and five other species. rgdcontentdescriptionthe rat genome databaseorganismsrattus norvegicus (rat)contactresearch centermedical college of wisconsin & biomedical engineeringlaboratoryanne e. kwitekauthorsysabel chen & the rgd teamprimary citationpmid 31713623accesswebsitergd.mcw.edudownload urlrgd data release rgd began as a collaborative effort between research institutions involved in rat genetic and genomic research. its goal, as stated in the national institutes of health’s request for grant application: hl-99-013, is the establishment of a rat genome database to collect, consolidate, and integrate data generated from ongoing rat genetic and genomic research efforts and make this data widely available to the scientific community. a secondary, but critical goal is to provide curation of mapped positions for quantitative trait loci, known mutations and other phenotypic data. the rat continues to be extensively used by researchers as a model organism for investigating pharmacology, toxicology, general physiology and the biology and pathophysiology of disease. in recent years, there has been a rapid increase in rat genetic and genomic data. in addition to this, the rat genome database has become a central point for information on the rat for research and now features information on not just genetics and genomics, but physiology and molecular biology as well. there are tools and data pages available for all of these fields that are curated by rgd staff. data rgd’s data consists of manual annotations from rgd researchers as well as imported annotations from a variety of different sources. rgd also exports their own annotations to share with others. rgd's data page lists eight types of data stored in the database: genes, qtls, markers, maps, strains, ontologies, sequences and