Mapping Seed Development Thanks to TDM
The Bibliome group at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) has developed a text-mining application that extracts fine information about seed development from thousands of texts. It gives scientists better and quicker access to how molecules, genes and proteins interact when a seed starts to grow.
Good Seed Makes a Good Crop
Inside a seed are components such as molecules, genes and proteins. The presence of these components and how they interact determines if a particular seed can be used for human or animal consumption or by industry. A better understanding of seed biology and development is therefore important for both crop breeders and industrial companies. Finding out which genes interact with which protein in which tissue at which stage is a key question for researchers in plant breeding.
Stephane Schneider is IT project manager at the Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (INIST-CNRS). INIST has one of the most important collections of scientific publications in Europe and provides a range of information search services for science and higher education. Stephane tells about his work and what he expects for the future of TDM. 
As part of the OpenMinTeD project, INRA has been working on a text mining application dedicated to food microbiology. This infographic will tell you the story. 
With a tasty bite of cheese necessarily come some microbial strains. Some of them are well known, but the presence of others can puzzle researchers and they might want to investigate why they are there. A better understanding of microorganisms, their interaction and their adaptation to their environment are important issues for research and industry. It could help improve public health or develop innovative products.