The Breeders' Database

The Breeders' Database, http://malt.pw.usda.gov/t3/bd, is a modification of The Triticeae Toolbox (T3), designed for the purposes of the US Wheat and Barley Scab Initiative.  It contains the results of the annual regional Uniform Scab Nurseries, past and current, assessing the reaction of wheat and barley cultivars and elite germplasm to Fusarium Head Blight (scab). The lines are also evaluated for other performance, disease, and quality traits, and are genotyped for particular SNP markers linked to important genes and QTLs.  These trait-associated SNPs are structured in the database and the user interface completely differently from anonymous genome-wide SNPs of no known significance a priori.  They are modeled as "Genetic Characters": simply-inherited, environment-insensitive properties inherent in each line, with two or a few states (alleles) and a single value for each line. Typically they are represented by the name of the gene, QTL, or trait the breeder is interested in rather than the name of the SNP marker actually assayed.  Some interface features are being added to TBD that are more important for such phenotype-based and marker-assisted selection than they are for the association genetics underlying T3, for example the ability to calculate a "Selection Index" value for each line, a normalized arithmetic combination of its scores for a selected set of traits in a selected set of experimental trials.