The Breeding Management System: An Integrated Software Product to Manage a Modern Plant Breeding Program.

The Integrated Breeding Platform (IBP), www.integratedbreeding.net, is a comprehensive resource for plant breeders. At the heart of the IBP is the Breeding Management System (BMS), a software product developed for, and with users, to provide a suite of integrated applications that facilitate activities essential to modern plant breeding. The BMS is accessible to public breeding programs working towards food security and development, is available to any breeding program under license, and provides facilities to these programs which have only been available in large private breeding companies until now.

The foundation of the BMS is the IB database that manages data associated with plant breeding, including pedigree information, seed inventory, phenotype and genotype data,. The current implementation of the BMS comes preloaded with trait, location and breeding method ontologies. Trait ontologies for ten crops are currently supported. These can be customized by users. Analysis of phenotypic data is provided by Breeding View, an embedded statistical application which currently supports single-site analysis, multi-site analysis and QTL analysis. The IB database also provides the means to store low to medium through-put marker data that can be accessed at different points in the BMS interface and used by tailor made marker implementation applications to facilitate the adoption and use of marker technologies in breeding.

Key to the BMS development is the implementation of a common web services Plant Breeding Application Programming Interface, that will readily allow external databases, software and services to easily connect to the BMS in a defined, controlled way. To add value to the BMS breeding services such as genotyping, diagnostic markers and crop information will be accessible through the IBP portal and a network of regional hubs in target countries will provide technical and professional support to facilitate the promotion and sustainable adoption of the BMS.