Crop Trait Mining Informatics Platform (Crop TMIP)

Full description

Lack of access to information relating to the characteristics of plant genetic resources is the primary limitation to the effective and efficient identification and deployment of novel genetic variation to address all production challenges. This data collection will build on an already existing global system (www.genesys-pgr.org, still under development) by adding significant Australian generated unique data – initially sourced from Grains Research and Development Corporation resourced projects. For an example refer to CAIGE data (http://caigeproject.org.au/). In addition to adding Australian data, this collection will be used to further develop a) the international standards (e.g. refer to http://aims.fao.org/community/blogs/faobioversity-multi-crop-passport-descriptors-mcpd-v2), and b) online tools, including a decision support system, to assist researchers and plant breeders identify the genotypes most likely to possess the desired genetic variation, or alleles, for target traits using approaches, such as the Focused Identification of Germplasm Strategy – FIGS (http://figs.icarda.org/). Australia is a signatory to the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture which carries certain obligations, including cooperating to develop and strengthen the global information system described in Article 17 of the Treaty. This allocation request directly addresses this obligation. The Global Crop Diversity Trust (http://www.croptrust.org/) works towards achieving Treaty objectives and are continuing to develop the Genesys information portal to facilitate Article 17 outcomes. The Trust are encouraging Australian researchers to work with them in this objective and are particularly interested in the inclusion of Australian data and local development of online decision support tools locally because of Australian expertise in this area. The Trust are also considering the possibility of having a full mirror of Genesys portal, or even hosting it, in Australia. This initiative offers numerous opportunities for Australian plant researchers to have greater input into global systems development as well as making significant gains from local and rapid access to the information included.