Open science is prompting wide efforts to make data from research available for broader use. However, sharing data is complicated by important protections on the data (e.g., protections of privacy and intellectual property). The spectrum of options existing between data needing to be fully open access and data that simply cannot be shared at all is quite limited. This paper puts forth a generalized remote secure enclave as a socio-technical framework consisting of policies, human processes, and technologies that work hand in hand to enable controlled access and use of restricted data. Based on experience in implementing the enclave for computational, analytical access to a massive collection of in-copyright texts, we discuss the synergies and trade-offs that exist between software components and policy and process components in striking the right balance between safety for the data, ease of use, and efficiency.
Background
Rice molecular genetics, breeding, genetic diversity, and allied research (such as rice-pathogen interaction) have adopted sequencing technologies and high-density genotyping platforms for genome variation analysis and gene discovery. Germplasm collections representing rice diversity, improved varieties, and elite breeding materials are accessible through rice gene banks for use in research and breeding, with many having genome sequences and high-density genotype data available. Combining phenotypic and genotypic information on these accessions enables genome-wide association analysis, which is driving quantitative trait loci discovery and molecular marker development. Comparative sequence analyses across quantitative trait loci regions facilitate the discovery of novel alleles. Analyses involving DNA sequences and large genotyping matrices for thousands of samples, however, pose a challenge to non−computer savvy rice researchers.
Findings
The Rice Galaxy resource has shared datasets that include high-density genotypes from the 3,000 Rice Genomes project and sequences with corresponding annotations from 9 published rice genomes. The Rice Galaxy web server and deployment installer includes tools for designing single-nucleotide polymorphism assays, analyzing genome-wide association studies, population diversity, rice−bacterial pathogen diagnostics, and a suite of published genomic prediction methods. A prototype Rice Galaxy compliant to Open Access, Open Data, and Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reproducible principles is also presented.
Conclusions
Rice Galaxy is a freely available resource that empowers the plant research community to perform state-of-the-art analyses and utilize publicly available big datasets for both fundamental and applied science.
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