Improved utilization of crop diversity for rationalized breeding using data interoperability

This chapter focuses on the importance of the effective utilization of the available crop (including wild relative) diversity in plant breeding to develop food crops with improved nutritive value, with higher yields while growing on more marginal soils and with increased ability to withstand more extreme climates, pests and diseases. Computational methodologies required to bring the gathered data together effectively and their storage in an appropriate format are presented and examples on how plant breeders can use data interoperability strategies to improve their research and the importance of the gene bank community in this process are discussed.