In plant sciences, curation and availability of interoperable phenotypic and genomic data is still in its infancy and represents an obstacle to rapid scientific discoveries in this field. To that end, supplementing the efforts being made to generate open access wheat genome, pan wheat genome and other bioinformatic resources, we present the GABI-WHEAT panel of elite European cultivars comprising 358 winter and 14 summer wheat varieties released between 1975 to 2007. The panel has been genotyped with SNP arrays of increasing density to investigate several important agronomic, quality and disease resistance traits. The robustness of investigated traits and interoperability of genomic and phenotypic data was assessed in the current publication with the aim to transform this panel into a public data resource for future genetic research in wheat. Consecutively, the phenotypic data was formatted to comply with FAIR principles and linked to online databases to substantiate panel origin information and quality. Thus, we were able to make a valuable resource available for plant science in a sustainable way.

Plant genetic resources (PGR) stored at genebanks are humanity’s crop diversity savings for the future. Information on PGR contrasted with modern cultivars is key to select PGR parents for pre-breeding. Genotyping-by-sequencing was performed for 7,745 winter wheat PGR samples from the German Federal ex situ genebank at IPK Gatersleben and for 325 modern cultivars. Whole-genome shotgun sequencing was carried out for 446 diverse PGR samples and 322 modern cultivars and lines. In 19 field trials, 7,683 PGR and 232 elite cultivars were characterized for resistance to yellow rust - one of the major threats to wheat worldwide. Yield breeding values of 707 PGR were estimated using hybrid crosses with 36 cultivars - an approach that reduces the lack of agronomic adaptation of PGR and provides better estimates of their contribution to yield breeding. Cross-validations support the interoperability between genomic and phenotypic data. The here presented data are a stepping stone to unlock the functional variation of PGR for European pre-breeding and are the basis for future breeding and research activities.

No abstract

No abstract