News

NEWS

  • Wheat phenotyping workshop

    The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) extends a cordial invitation to participate in the training workshop "Wheat phenotyping for the identification of germplasm with high yield potential and tolerance to drought and heat". This will be held in CIMMYT HQ, Texcoco, State of Mexico, on September 28th, 2018 (from 9:00 – 14:00 hrs) as part of the II Plant Breeding Symposium México 2018 (https://trasmejoragen.wixsite.com/inicio) The objective of this workshop is to train participants in the phenotypic characterization of wheat germplasm. Research themes include: climate change; priority characteristics for wheat for Mexico; phenotyping of genetically diverse materials and in the ...

  • II Plant Breeding Symposium Mexico 2018

    MasAgro Biodiversity announces the II Plant Breeding Symposium Mexico 2018 which will be held on September 6 and 7, 2018 at the CIMMYT HQ, Texcoco. Mexico. This event belongs to the series of DuPont Plant Sciences Symposia. For more information please visit the website:https://trasmejoragen.wixsite.com/inicio

  • New video: Crop biodiversity for healthy, nutritious livelihoods

    Erratic weather, poor soil health, and resource shortages keep millions of maize and wheat farmers in developing countries from growing enough to feed their households and communities or to harvest a surplus to sell.

  • 3rd KDSmart app workshop

    The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) extends a cordial invitation to participate in the training workshop on the use of the KDSmart app. This will be held in Texcoco, State of Mexico, on December 20, 2017 (from 9:00 - 17:00 hrs).

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Catalogue

PRODUCTS CATALOGUE

PRODUCTS CATALOGUE

MasAgro Biodiversity, a component of the Sustainable Modernization of Traditional Agriculture (MasAgro) program, focuses on the utilization and conservation of valuable genetic resources with genetic diversity protected in germplasm banks. This program has the purpose of accelerating the development of Varieties of maize and wheat that can meet the nutrition and nutritional demands of a growing population, facing the challenges of climate change.

By characterizing the genetic configuration of CIMMYT germplasm bank collections, the evaluation of priority characteristics – such as drought tolerance, high temperatures and some diseases – and the development of bioinformatics tools that streamline its analysis, MasAgro Biodiversity has Generated a “platform for the utilization of genetic resources” of maize and wheat.

This platform puts several products at the disposal of the scientific community. MasAgro Biodiversity also offers some services in order to promote equity in access and benefits of the use of maize and wheat diversity.

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  • ‘KDSmart’ Hand-Held Data Capture Application

    This is an Android platform, digital application for recording phenotypic data in the field, greenhouse or laboratory using a tablet or smart phone. KDSmart uses Excel files that are easily imported and exported to your computer. Among several useful features, KDSmart allows the user to specify value ranges for traits, thereby reducing errors during data collection, and it integrates barcode readers (where hardware allows) to semi-automate the collection of phenotypic values. KDSmart was developed by Diversity Arrays Technology (DArT) in collaboration with CIMMYT.

    Product details and features

    1. KDSmart features have been tested and validated by breeders and other users in field and laboratory settings.
    2. KDSmart requires a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), either a tablet or smart digital phone, with the Android® version 4.0.3 or newer operating system. The recommended size of tablet for field use is 7″ or smaller; larger devices are heavy and difficult to maneuver. MasAgro Biodiversity scientists and technicians prefer to use tablets instead of telephones.
    3. Experiments can be imported to KDSmart using comma-separated value (csv) files. Once imported into KDSmart, the csv file becomes a database that will be filled with data that the researcher collects.
    4. KDSmart has many configuration options to customize to the characteristics of the test, the characters to be measured and the preferences of the investigator. For example, the user can define the characteristics of traits being studied in terms of their type (numerical, logical, text, scale, Boolean, photo), the number of decimals for the numerical data, or the number of days from a defined “day zero.”

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    1. Real-time error-reducing features include the option to define a value-range for each trait, which warns the user if an unlikely or impossible value is entered.
    2. Data can be exported from KDSmart to your computer using several formats.

     

    Availability

    1. Currently available, released with improved versions being periodically released
    2. Last version KDSmart is available for download through the Google Play Store (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.diversityarrays.kdsmart&hl=en)

     

    Comments

    KDSmart interact with other tools such as KDXplore for enhanced trial management and data curation. An online course is available under CIMMYT’s e-learning platform (http://training.cimmyt.org/), which assists users to effectively use this application.

    Primary Users

    Breeders, researchers, technicians and/or students with activities which include the collection of phenotypic data from any setting, with high precision and error-reducing features.

    For more information

     

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RESEARCH PORTFOLIO

RESEARCH PORTFOLIO

Genetic resources

Genetic resources

Capacity

Capacity

Data

Data

Pre-breeding Germplasm

Pre-breeding Germplasm

Knowledge

Knowledge

Software

Software

PHILOSOPHY OF OUR APPROACH

PHILOSOPHY OF OUR APPROACH

So many accessions, so few data!

Many genebanks resemble libraries that lack sufficiently informative catalogs. The advent of next-generation DNA-sequencing platforms has made it possible to characterize the genetic diversity conserved in entire genebanks.

Information management

Generating new data by itself is insufficient if it cannot be effectively disseminated, queried, summarized, visualized, and analyzed. Data generation, therefore, has to go hand-in-hand with providing intuitive software and analysis tools to deal with the rapidly expanding datasets describing maize and wheat genetic resources.

Pre-breeding

A ‘reformatting’ of the diversity in genebanks into a more breeder-ready format could lower the barriers to mobilize novel genetic variation into breeding programs, which in good part are due to the dependency of gene effects on genetic backgrounds.

Traits with complex genetic architecture

Some of the most important challenges to agriculture need to be addressed by manipulating genetically complex characters controlled by small-effect alleles (yield potential, heat and drought tolerance, etc.).

Collecting germplasm.

The availability of sufficient numbers of genebank accessions does not appear to be a factor limiting the use of novel genetic variation in breeding programs, and a new initiative will secure the global network of genebanks of humanity’s major food crops for future generations.