Diversity Seek (DivSeek): Towards A Concerted Effort To Harness The Genetic Potential Of The World’s Genebanks

Global genebanks hold approximately seven million different crop accessions. Crop improvement ultimately depends on the genetic variation contained in these accessions. To this date, efforts to mobilize some of this variation into breeding programs have been limited when compared to the size of this global resource. Yet over the last several years it has become clear that novel diversity from genetic resources will be required to develop climate-ready, high-yielding and nutritious varieties to feed growing populations. In parallel, game-changing next-generation sequencing technologies and large-scale phenotyping techniques have become broadly available. The Diversity Seek initiative (DivSeek; http://divseek.org) started as a community-driven movement aiming at leveraging these technologies alongside big-data approaches to unlock the genetic potential of crop diversity. DivSeek is intended to operate as an ‘umbrella platform’ supporting a network of like-minded crop-specific projects harnessing genetic resources. As such, DivSeek proposes to (a) stimulate common data standards that enable interoperability of data repositories and information integration; (b) provide networking and cross-crop learning opportunities to rapidly incorporate lessons learned; (c) facilitate access to a portfolio of genomics and software platforms for those who otherwise do not have easy access; and (d) promote a broadly accepted framework for ‘rights management’ which helps individual projects comply with data access and sharing principles, and incentivize the development of derivative materials and knowledge.