Integrating research on genetic resources with the international wheat information system

To meet the world’s ever-growing demand for wheat, research institutions must integrate the efforts of scientists from various disciplines: the plant breeders with the geneticists, the physiologists and the agronomists. At CIMMYT, we are committed to such an interdisciplinary approach and recognise that all relevant information on genetic resources must be equally available to all participants. We need to integrate our passport, characterisation and evaluation data so that access is simple and direct and linkages are transparent. There must be one strategy to manage data pertaining to germplasm, wherever those data are generated. This implies either a massive single database or a substantial effort to harmonise and interconnect a set of more specific databases. This has led the CIMMYT Wheat Program to develop the International Wheat Information System (IWIS).