Genetic Resources Information Package for Wheat Researchers (GRIP for Wheat) 1: Passport Information

• Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, China
• Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Russia
• Indian Agricultural Research Institute, India
• Australian Winter Cereals Collection, Australia

The value of wheat genetic resources is enhanced significantly by the availability of associated information. Data about the pedigree, origin, synonyms etc., of these resources, enables them to be more useful to wheat breeders and researchers. It enables a breeder to trace given attributes to different allelic backgrounds; it enables the source of an attribute to be followed; it can assist in the selection of parents for hybridisation programs. This project will, by collating this type of information about wheat genetic resources into one package, contribute to the efficiency of wheat improvement in developing (and developed) countries. The project represents the first time such pedigree and associated data will be captured electronically on a global basis and distributed as either CD-ROM, diskette or hard copy.

The following was achieved: 1) previous catalogues on wheat germplasm were collated into a single database, this included information on a set of germplasm descriptors (name, origin, habit, synonyms, abbreviation, pedigree, selection history, accession numbers, year of cross release) 2) information from India, China and Russia was also added, with further information, originally not considered, from other countries (including Canada, USA, UK, Scandinavia and S.America), altogether it contains 130,000 records, 3) GRIP 1 was provided to researchers in electronic format as a complete run time product for the Windows environment, 500 copies were dispatched in 1996 with more available if needed. It was also included in the registration package for the 5th International Wheat Conference in Ankara, Turkey, June 1996.