Toward better data sharing methods for genebanks

The conservation of plant genetic resources (PGR) is an important task that requires collaborative effort from many stakeholders. For this, common means of data exchange and effective methods to profit from the collected information need to be established. In this paper, we describe a demonstrator promoting findability of PGR, according to the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable & Reusable) data principles. PGR providers can each expose their germplasm information, using the FAO Multicrop Passport Descriptor (MCPD), which subsequently can be queried in a distributed manner via a single user interface. PGR users can select among predefined questions, for example for specific crops, accessions or phenotypes. On the back end, data integration from a distributed query is achieved through annotations with the MCPD semantics.</p