In-depth architectural comparison of the Biorobotics and Plant Genomics MCP MCP servers. Compare execution transports, security boundaries, tool capabilities, quality scores, and ready-to-paste client installation snippets for Claude, Cursor, Windsurf, and VS Code.
At a Glance & Executive Verdict
Biorobotics
Biology, Medicine and Bioinformatics · Local stdio
Quality: 48/100 (Fair) | Auth: No auth required
Plant Genomics MCP
Biology, Medicine and Bioinformatics · Local stdio
Quality: 60/100 (Good) | Auth: No auth required
Verdict Summary: Choose Biorobotics if you need specialized Biology, Medicine and Bioinformatics tools running via a local process. Choose Plant Genomics MCP if your workspace requires Biology, Medicine and Bioinformatics integration with local subprocess execution. Both servers can be configured concurrently in your client's mcpServers manifest.
Which MCP Server Should You Choose?
Choose Biorobotics when:
You need dedicated capabilities in the Biology, Medicine and Bioinformatics domain.
You prefer local stdio subprocess transport architecture.
Your security boundary fits: No auth required (Free / Open Source).
A stateless, deterministic Bio-Robotics Core Engine converting biological data (UniProt API) to Cartesian G-code coordinates using the Model Context Protocol. 🐍 🏠 🍎 🪟 🐧
32 tools for plant-genomics locus lookup across 11 public backends (Ensembl Plants, Phytozome, UniProtKB, KEGG, STRING-DB, Gramene, Europe PMC, QuickGO, NCBI BLAST, ATTED-II, BAR). Single-locus, parallel-batch, and cross-source synthesis variants; JSON output schemas and EDAM ontology tags on every tool. pipx install plant-genomics-mcp.
Category & Scope
Tools & Capabilities Breakdown
Biorobotics Tools (6)
fetch_genomic_data
Queries live sequence parameters from the UniProt REST API, with a local fallback for offline or rate-limited conditions.
resolve_biotech_spatial_intent
Translates assay parameters (concentration, plate scale) into immutable spatial metrics in SI base units.
map_plate_coordinate
Translates alphanumeric well IDs (e.g. `A1`–`H12`) into exact millimeter offsets, per SLAS/SBS 96-well plate standards.
calculate_pipetting_speed
Calibrates G-code feedrate and pressure delay from reagent viscosity and target volume.
calculate_dna_melting_temp
Calculates GC-content and melting temperature (Tm) of a DNA sequence for thermal deck configuration.
Ready-to-Paste Client Configurations
Paste either (or both) of these JSON server blocks into your client config file (e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json).
Biorobotics is categorized under Biology, Medicine and Bioinformatics and uses a local stdio subprocess. In contrast, Plant Genomics MCP belongs to Biology, Medicine and Bioinformatics using local stdio subprocess. Select Biorobotics when you need capabilities focused on biology, medicine and bioinformatics and Plant Genomics MCP when you require tools for biology, medicine and bioinformatics.
Translates EMG muscle signals (µV) into safe joint angles and G-code velocity profiles, with a built-in safety envelope check.
Plant Genomics MCP Tools (50)
ensembl_plants_lookup_locus
Fetch metadata for a plant locus identifier from Ensembl Plants. Defaults to arabidopsis_thaliana; pass organism= for other plant species (oryza_sativa, zea_mays, ...). Locus is the TAIR-style identifier (e.g. AT1G01010 for Arabidopsis NAC001).
get_gene_xrefs
Fetch cross-database references (UniProt, NCBI Gene, TAIR, ArrayExpress, …) for a plant locus from Ensembl Plants. Defaults to arabidopsis_thaliana; pass organism= for other Ensembl Plants species. Returns count + raw xref list + a by_db rollup keyed on Ensembl's dbname (e.g. 'Uniprot_gn', 'EntrezGene') for fast lookup of a single foreign identifier.
get_sequence
Fetch a locus's sequence from Ensembl Plants. seq_type is one of genomic / cds / cdna / protein (default protein — the canonical-transcript product). Closes the lookup → fetch → BLAST loop: feed the returned `sequence` straight to blast_sequence (protein for blastp, cds/cdna for blastn). Defaults to arabidopsis_thaliana; pass organism= for other plant species.
ensembl_region_query
List features overlapping a genomic interval via Ensembl Plants /overlap/region. region is the seq-region name (chromosome / contig, e.g. '1'); start and end are 1-based inclusive. feature is one of gene / transcript / cds / exon (default gene). Answers 'what genes are in this QTL interval / assembly window' without a per-locus lookup. Ensembl caps the span — oversized regions error. Defaults to arabidopsis_thaliana; pass organism= for other species.
phytozome_lookup_locus
Fetch a gene record from Phytozome BioMart (phytozome-next.jgi.doe.gov). Defaults to arabidopsis_thaliana; pass organism= for other Phytozome proteomes (slug, scientific/common name, or NCBI taxid — e.g. glycine_max, sorghum_bicolor). Locus is the source-genome gene name (e.g. AT1G01010, Glyma.01G000100). Returns organism_name, gene_name, chromosome, gene_start, gene_end, strand, description.
resolve_locus_to_uniprot
Resolve a plant locus to its canonical UniProtKB record. Prefers reviewed (Swiss-Prot) entries; falls back to unreviewed (TrEMBL) when no curated record exists (common for non-Arabidopsis plants). organism accepts a canonical slug, scientific/common name, or NCBI taxid (default arabidopsis_thaliana; e.g. oryza_sativa, zea_mays). Returns primaryAccession, uniProtkbId, entryType, recommendedName, geneNames, organism, taxonId, sequenceLength, web_url. This is the protein-side entry point — pair with InterPro / AlphaFold / Reactome / structural-bio tools.
locus_literature
Search Europe PMC for literature mentioning a plant locus. Free, no API key. Returns up to `size` results (default 10, capped at 25) with title, authors, journal, year, DOI, PMID, open-access status, citation count, and abstract. For non-Arabidopsis species the species common name is appended to the query to disambiguate locus IDs (rice, maize, ...). Pair with resolve_locus_to_uniprot or ensembl_plants_lookup_locus to ground the locus before fanning out to the literature.
locus_go_annotations
Fetch Gene Ontology annotations for a plant locus from QuickGO (EBI). Free, no API key. The locus is first resolved to a UniProt accession via the same logic as resolve_locus_to_uniprot, then QuickGO is queried by geneProductId. Returns annotations[] with goId/goName/goAspect/qualifier/evidence + a by_aspect rollup ({molecular_function: [{goId, goName}, ...], biological_process: [...], cellular_component: [...]}) deduped on goId so the high-level term set is one read away.
locus_plant_ontology
Fetch Plant Ontology (PO) + Trait Ontology (TO) + experimental-condition (PECO) annotations for a plant locus from Planteome (browser.planteome.org, AmiGO2/GOlr; free, no API key). Complements locus_go_annotations: QuickGO serves GO (species-agnostic), Planteome serves the plant-specific ontologies — PO (anatomy + developmental stage), TO (traits). The locus is matched across Planteome's searchable bioentity fields and filtered by the organism's NCBI taxon. Returns annotations[] (term_id / term_name / ontology / aspect / evidence / reference) + a by_ontology rollup ({PO: [{term_id, term_name}, ...], TO: [...], PECO: [...]}) deduped on term_id. Coverage is strong for arabidopsis, rice, maize, grape, soybean, tomato; other organisms return an empty list, not an error. Defaults to arabidopsis_thaliana; pass organism= for other species.
go_enrichment
GO + KEGG over-representation analysis for a gene LIST via g:Profiler g:GOSt (biit.cs.ut.ee/gprofiler; free, no API key). Unlike locus_go_annotations (one locus → its terms), this answers 'what is my gene SET enriched for?' — the dominant question for a differential-expression or co-expression cluster. loci is the query gene list (e.g. AT-codes for Arabidopsis, RAP-DB IDs for rice). sources defaults to GO:BP/GO:MF/GO:CC + KEGG; user_threshold is the g:SCS-corrected significance cutoff (default 0.05). Optional background sets a custom statistical domain (default: all annotated genes). Returns enriched[] (term_id/name/p_value/intersection_size/…, capped at top_n by p-value) plus unmapped[] — query loci g:Profiler could not recognize, surfaced so a locus-namespace mismatch is visible. Defaults to arabidopsis_thaliana; pass organism= for any of the 12 species.
gramene_homologs
Fetch orthologs and paralogs for a plant locus from Gramene compara (data.gramene.org v69). Default homology_type='ortholog'; pass 'paralog' for in-species duplicates or 'all' for everything. Returns target_locus + homology category (type) + shared gene_tree_id per hit. The fl=homology projection does not carry per-row taxon, identity, or protein ID; pair with resolve_locus_to_uniprot for protein-level enrichment and with blast_sequence for sequence similarity discovery.
kegg_pathways
Fetch KEGG pathway memberships for an Arabidopsis locus from rest.kegg.jp. Returns a list of pathway IDs + names + KEGG category classes the locus participates in. Pairs with locus_go_annotations for the GO-level functional view. Multi-organism caveat (v1.1.0): the organism= field accepts any plant in the matrix for symmetry with the other backends, but only arabidopsis_thaliana resolves — KEGG uses NCBI Entrez Gene IDs for rice/maize/etc. and our cross-backend locus contract can't produce those yet, so any other organism raises OrganismNotSupported before any HTTP call. KEGG v118+ is case-sensitive on the locus: pass AGI loci as uppercase.