Our Mission

Scientific Background & Publications

The ChromoDB project is built upon years of foundational research in the field of plant cytogenetics. Our commitment to organizing and curating chromosome data has a long history, which is reflected in the following scientific publications.We invite you to explore our team's scientific contributions below.

CromoCat

The first and main project or our team is CromoCat (Chromosome Database of the Flora of the Catalan Countries) designed to gather the wider dataset of plant genetic diversity from our country (Catalan Countries, including Catalonia, Valencian Country, Balearic Islands, Aragon Strip, Andorra, and Northern/French Catalonia). Both scientific (systematics, plant population biology) and applied (plant conservation, genetic resources cataloguing, etc.) sectors are expected to benefit of an easier access to plant genetic information.

The first deign of this database was based on the OPTIMA Standards (OPTIMA Comission for Karyosystematics, 1993), running on Microsoft Access® software and built as relational database. Fields design are available from Simon & Blanché, 1997 (OPTIMA Newsletter 32: 6-7) and Simon, Margelí & Blanché, 2001 (Bocconea 13: 281-297). The taxonomic theasaurus followed Bolòs, Vigo, Masalles & Ninot, 2005 (Fl. Manual Països Cat. 3rd ed., Pòrtic, Barcelona).

The first version of CromoCat, born in 1996, included full chromosome data from the covered area (Field "CRO-IN") and summarized data from outside (Field "CRO-OUT") for crossing external references, after searches from multiple sources (on paper and online). From 2001, we had the opportunity to incorporate chromosomal variation in the Flora section of the Catalan Biodiversity Database – BDBC (http:/biodiver.bio.ub.es) (Simon J, Blanche´ C, Mo`dul CromoCat. In:Banc de Dades de Biodiversitat de Catalunya. Generalitat de Catalunya i Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, 2025), partially funded by Autonomous Government of Catalonia - Generalitat de Catalunya (Departament de Medi Ambient i Habitatge). The BDBC system (directed by Prof. X. Font) was adopted (included the taxonomic thesaurus) and the technical challenge was easily attained to include our database fields into the BDBC framework, making possible free internet access to chromosome data and allowing for yearly updating since 2001 up to now. A parallel sister-database called GenoCat was developped to include all molecular markers of genetic diversity, stored in the same BDBC system.

Recent development of CromoCat evolved as a complete repository of karyological information on the vascular flora of the Catalan Countries. CromoCat is now designed as an independent database, managed by our team and available from its own webpage (http:/www.cromo.cat/). CromoCat contains at present more than 70.000 records and is the second oldest functioning karyological database in the World, only after that of Missouri Botanical Garden (USA). A complete revision of development and achievements can be found at:

Simon, Joan, Maria Bosch & Cèsar Blanché (2023). CromoCat: Chromosome Database of the Vascular Flora of the Catalan Countries—25 years In: S. Garcia & N. Nualart (eds.). Plant Genomic and Cytogenetic Databases. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol. 2703. Humana Press, Springer Nature, Nova York: 131-160 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3389-2

• Designed as independent module of- and linked/available through BIOCAT (Biodiversity Database of Catalonia)

• Partially funded by Autonomous Government of Catalonia - Generalitat de Catalunya (Departament de Medi Ambient i Habitatge)

• Available trough the internet at http://biodiver.bio.ub.es/biocat/homepage.html

CromoPar

With the same goals of CromoCat, the scientfic relationships of our team with South-American colleagues drove to the building of a chromosomal database for vascular plants of Paraguay, called CromoPar, with analogous structure, capturing strategies and dissemination interests. It is also an independent database, managed by researchers, and recently reviewed in the framework of South American Plant Chromosome Numbers Databases. At present, the three existing S. American databases comprise information on around 1800 plant taxa related to specific regions, countries, or biomes (more info in: Sader, Mariela A, Lucas A. Costa, Gustavo Souza, Juan D. Urdampilleta, Joan Simon & Magdalena Vaio (2023): South American Plant Chromosome Numbers Databases:The Information We Have and the Information We Lack on the Most Plant-Diverse Continent. In: S. Garcia & N. Nualart (eds.). Plant Genomic and Cytogenetic Databases. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol. 2703. Humana Press, Springer Nature, Nova York: 211-226. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3389-2)

Delphineae database

Under some distinct point of view, i.e., studying karyological data in specific taxonomic group, the systematic research of our team acquired a significative pack of information of chromosome data on Tribe Delphineae (Ranunculaceae). A first attempt to offer our data to researchers ant other interested persons, resulted in a first self-published document in 1999 (Simon J, Bosch M., Molero J., & Blanché C. (1999). A conspect of chromosome numbers in tribe Delphinieae (Ranunculaceae). Biodiversity Electronic Publications 1 [online] http://hdl.handle.net/2445/95875. Accessed 15 September 2025). A refined and expanded version (Bosch, M., Simon, J., López-Pujol, J., & Blanché, C. (2016). DCDB: an updated online database of chromosome numbers of tribe Delphinieae (Ranunculaceae). Fl Medit 26:191–201. https://doi.org/10.7320/FlMedit26.191) included increased number of new reports and, as central goal, a refined and cured checking of information, to compensate an important number of errors, confusions and lacking of information on many repositories. Trying to offer a reliable and confident repository for biodiversity information of Delphineae, a recent new version has been lauched in 2023 (Bosch, M., López-Pujol, J., Blanche, C., ́& Simon, S. (2023). DCDB: Chromosome Database of Tribe Delphinieae (Ranunculaceae): Structure, Exploitation, and Recent Development . In: S. Garcia & N. Nualart (eds.). Plant Genomic and Cytogenetic Databases. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol. 2703. Humana Press, Springer Nature, Nova York: 173-192. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3389-2), with yearly expanded versions. It can be found in open access as "DCDB: Delphinieae Chromosome Database (M. Bosch coord.), at https://www.delphinieae.online/)

The experience after the development of CromoCat, CromoPar and DCDB highlighted the need for a single, curated, and reliable chromosome database. ChromoDB was created to offer a centralized, accessible, and meticulously curated resource for the research community.