OzBarley

A genotype-to-phenotype data asset for Australian barley

Dawn in the wheat field

The Challenge

Modern cereal breeding and crop improvement rely on genotypic and phenotypic data to identify the important genetics that drive crop performance, such as high yield, salinity, drought or heat tolerance. 

The OzBarley genotype-to-phenotype (G2P) data asset will make this data available for the discovery of important barley genes, reducing the time and cost of breeding new barley varieties. 

The Response

The OzBarley project developed a publicly available, FAIR-compliant genotype-to-phenotype (G2P) data asset that is specifically designed by, and for, Australian researchers and breeders focusing on barley as an economically important model crop.

The project involved the following elements:

  • audit of existing datasets to understand data formats, metadata standards, existing ontologies, annotations, and assessment of datasets against the FAIR principles
  • quality control and curation of individual datasets focusing on interoperability
  • development of a G2P data model to create formal linkage between genomic and phenomic data
  • delivery of enhanced combined data assets that are findable and accessible.

The Outcomes

Access the OzBarley dataset.

OzBarley created a G2P data asset for the assessment of crop genomes, and the corresponding variability in trait expression with relation to the environment. This allows researchers, breeders, bioinformaticians and machine learning experts to jointly work towards extracting maximum value from the data to support crop improvement.

Public/private collaboration will ensure open and integrated data access to academic and industry users, and a foundation for researchers to grow the data asset in the future.

Read about the impact of OzBarley in GRDC’s GroundCover magazine.

Read an article about the project from Bioplatforms Australia.

Who Uses OzBarley?

Researchers and research organisations, plant breeders, the Australian grains industry, data managers and analysts benefit from the project’s core features:

The Partners

Our partners were:

  • Australian Plant Phenomics Facility (APPF) 
  • Bioplatforms Australia (BPA).

Our collaborating organisations were:

  • Australian Grain Technologies (AGT)
  • InterGrain
  • Secobra Recherches
  • University of Adelaide
  • CSIRO
  • Charles Sturt University
  • Australian Genome Research Facility (AGRF)
  • Australian Grains Genebank (AGG)
  • Federation University
  • James Hutton Institute.
Who will benefit
Researchers and research organisations, plant breeders, Australian grains industry, ata managers and analysts
DOI
https://doi.org/10.47486/XN001

Timeframe

November 2020 to October 2022

Current Phase

Complete

ARDC Co-investment

$400,000

Project lead

Australian Plant Phenomics Facility (APPF)