Unlocking the Breeding Potential of African Crops through Efficient Data Management: The Example of Cassavabase

Cassava (Manihot esculenta) is the main source of calories for 250 million people in Africa and therefore indispensable for food security. Cassavabase (www.cassavabase.org) is the central datastore for the NextGen Cassava Project, aiming to leverage cassava genomic breeding and accelerate variety development in Africa (www.nextgencassava.org/). Cassavabase aims to provide a complete bioinformatic toolset to the cassava research community. From the field to the lab to the office, it offers integrative solutions for information tracking, streamline management of genotypic and phenotypic data and genomic selection analyses.

Through its web interface, Cassavabase is a globally accessible resource, enhancing data sharing and communication within cassava research community in Africa and overseas. User feedback drives new development and improvements through an active communication system. Current tools cover phenotyping data (trait ontology dictionary, fieldbook app), sequencing data (GBS pipeline, Jbrowse), breeding management (breeding program, trial, trait, pedigree search) and molecular breeding (trait descriptive statistics, genetic maps, genomic selection).

Since its inception, 7 million phenotypic datapoints and 18,000 genotyped accessions have been stored from 500+ users across half dozen breeding programs. By the project end, Cassavabase will be fully hosted at IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria, providing a "all in one" solution for cassava researchers and breeders worldwide. All current developments and data are open source and available to the community (https://github.com/solgenomics/).

In this presentation, we will provide an overview of the current data and tools in Cassavabase. We will highlight challenges encountered and future developments.