The European barley database of the ECP/GR: an introduction

Abstract

Passport data of 55,369 accessions from 35 barley collections in 26 countries are stored in the European Barley Database (EBDB) of the European Cooperative Programme for the Conservation and Exchange of Crop Genetic Resources (ECP/GR) which is maintained at the Zentralinstitut fur Genetik und Kulturpflanzenforschung at Gatersleben, German Democratic Republic. A catalogue, the European Barley List, was published in 1987. The database runs on an 8 bit microcomputer under the CP/M operating system and the database management system dBASE II. The objectives of the EBDB are outlined, and the origin of the data is described. The definitions of the 23 passport descriptors are given, and problems of their standardization and the development of unified acronym systems are discussed. Surveys of the geographical distribution and the botanical composition of the material are presented. Detailed tables list the origin countries of the material, the most frequent botanical varieties inHordeum vulgare, and the 33 wild species of the genusHordeum which are represented by 2785 accessions. The frequencies of certain morphological character combinations inH. vulgare are calculated from the frequencies of the corresponding infraspecific taxa. The projected development of the database includes the identification of duplicates and of geographical gaps in European collections. The usefulness of a KWIC (Key Word In Context) index as a new tool for the identification of duplicates in plant genetic resources databases is illustrated by two examples. The services of the EBDB and computer-readable copies of the database are offered to potential users.