AniMarkerDB: a comprehensive database for exploring cell types and marker genes in livestock and poultry at single-cell resolution

Abstract

Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) has dramatically advanced the understanding of cellular heterogeneity. While numerous marker gene databases are available for humans and mice, a lack of systematic resources for livestock and poultry species remains, limiting progress in functional genomics, immunology, and breeding.. To address this challenge, we developed AniMarkerDB (https://animarkerdb.bio), a comprehensive and curated database dedicated to marker genes and immune-related epitopes in economically animals, including chicken, pig, and duck. AniMarkerDB integrates 7,010 marker gene across 37 tissues and 846 cell types, together with 71,442 immune epitope records from IEDB. All entries undergo rigorous literature curation, manual validation, and multi-level quality control, with standardized nomenclature and annotation to ensure data consistency and reusability. The platform supports flexible queries by species, tissue, cell type, or gene. It offers analytical tools for cross-species comparison model organisms such as human and mouse, interactive single-cell atlas visualization, and user-defined cell type annotation. Additionally, AniMarkerDB provides dynamic visualizations and export options, enabling researchers to efficiently obtain large-scale marker and epitope data for downstream applications such as infectious disease research, vaccine target design, and comparative immunology. Looking ahead, AniMarkerDB will expand species coverage and incorporate additional modalities, including single-cell atlases from healthy and disease models, establishing itself as a comprehensive and authoritative platform for animal cell biology, disease modeling, and translational research. Graphical abstract O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=136 SRC="FIGDIR/small/682327v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (38K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@af7e7borg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@198d114org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@1c69ed2org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@e4fc43_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG