1. Searching with multiple keywords

To search with multiple keywords, separate each word with a space such as "flower rice". This will search for genes with either of the keywords. If you want to search for genes with all of the keywords, use the AND operator, such as "flower AND rice".

2. Including or excluding words from your search

You can use operators to include or exclude specific words from your search.

A union using sets - OR operator or || symbol

This will search for genes with either of the keywords. For example, "salinity OR stress" or "salinity || stress" will search for genes related to either salinity or stress.

An intersection using sets – AND operator or && symbol

This will search for genes which contain both of the keywords. For example, if you type "salinity AND stress" or "salinity && stress", a search for genes which contain both keywords "salinity" and "stress" will be performed.

A difference using sets – NOT operator or ! symbol

The NOT operator excludes genes that contain the keyword after the NOT operator. For example, if you type "salinity NOT stress" or "salinity !stress", a search for genes which contain salinity but does not contain stress will be performed.

Plus (+) symbol

The "+" symbol performs a search for genes that must contain the keyword which comes after the "+" symbol. For example, use "salinity +stress" to search for genes that may contain "salinity" but must contain "stress".

Minus (-) symbol

The "-" symbol excludes genes that contain the keyword which comes after the "-" symbol. For example, use "-salinity –stress" to search for genes without "salinity" and without "stress".

3. Wildcard searches

You can use the following characters for wildcard searches.

Question mark (?) for single character wildcard search

The single character wildcard search will look for images with keywords which match that with the single character replaced. For example, use "sho?t" to search for "short" or "shoot".

Asterisk (*) for multiple characters wildcard search

The multiple character wildcard search will look for images with keywords that match that with 0 or more characters replaced. For example, use "Oshox*" to search for "Oshox1" or "Oshox".

4. Fuzzy searches

You can use the tilde (~) symbol at the end of a single keyword to perform a fuzzy search which will look for other words with spelling similar to the keyword. For example, use "japonica~" to search for genes related to "japonica" or "javanica".
Furthermore, you can specify the edit distance (positive integer) after the tilde, e.g., "indica~2". Edit distance refers to the minimum number of operations (insertion, deletion or replacement) required to convert the keyword into the targeted word. For example, when you search with “indica~2” as the keyword, the results will include words with the edit distance of 2 such as indica, india and indian.

5. Proximity Searches

You can add the tilde (~) symbol and a number at the end of a phrase to specify the distance of the keywords with one another. For example, use "QTL leaf"~10 to search for information with "QTL" and "leaf" within 10 words of each other.

6. Boosting a keyword

You can boost a keyword by adding the caret (^) symbol with a boost factor (a number) at the end of the keyword. The boost factor must be a positive number and the higher the number, the more relevant the keyword is. By default, the boost factor of a keyword is 1. For example, use "leaf^2 embryo^0.1" to indicate that leaf is twice as relevant and the embryo is one-tenth as relevant.

7. Grouping

Keywords grouped together with parentheses () will be prioritized in the search. For example, use "(salinity OR osmotic) AND stress" to search for stress that are salinity or osmotic.

8. Searching with keywords that contain special characters

You can escape the supported special characters (+ - && || ! ( ) { } [] ^ " ~ * ? : \) with a backslash (\) to search for keywords which contains special characters. For example, use "42\(5\)" to search for 42(5).