A Public API for Crop Breeding Data

In May 2014, Gary Atlin of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation initiated a collaborative project to create an open, shared Application Programming Interface (API) for crop breeding.  The goal is to foster development of software tools that can exchange genotype and phenotype data with remote databases using a standardized request/response specification.  Having a single API for data transfer should simplify development and result in better tools, as well as reduce unnecessary duplication of tasks and increase communication among programmers working on similar projects.  Founding members of the collaboration include the IBP's Breeding Management System, IRRI's Breeding Information Management System, the KDDart Knowledge Discovery System, CassavaBase, and The Triticeae Toolbox.  Initial effort has focused on methods for germplasm, genotyping data, and field data collection with mobile devices.  The project's work-in-progress is available on Apiary at http://docs.breeding.apiary.io.  Interested application developers and database programmers are invited to view, critique, and/or join the collaboration to insure that the API addresses their requirements.