OzBarley: from Genome to Phenome and back again

OzBarley is a public resource capturing the diversity and breeding history of barley in Australia.

The aim is to share genotype-to-phenotype (G2P) data of Australian barley varieties with the research community and provide a platform for future contributions by OzBarley users to grow and expand the database. We want to provide a foundation for researchers to explore and mine the diversity of Australian barley for their respective research projects.

The OzBarley project was made possible through the generous contributions of many partners. OzBarley received investment from the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC), the Australian Plant Phenomics Facility (APPF), and Bioplatforms Australia (BPA). The ARDC, APPF and BPA are enabled by the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS).

The OzBarley collection was initiated in 2023 with the outputs of the project described above: 

• a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population of Mundah x Keel
• an elite panel of over 200 commercial barley varieties
• a collection of over 500 barley landraces

The vision is to grow OzBarley with further contributions from the barley community.

OzBarley is delivered using the GERMINATE plant genetic resources platform and is hosted at Pawsey. All associated datasets will be linked via the GERMINATE platform.

All datasets contain genotype data, with links provided to the respective access sites for data exploration and download. Pedigree information is also available for the diversity panel, with all seed deposited in the Australian Grains Genebank. Phenotypic data is available for the Mundah x Keel RIL population and the elite panel.

Data available in OzBarley includes:

Munda x Keel RIL population:

• GBS marker data
• Phenotypic data of shoot growth and leaf length derived from images, as well as      wet-lab data of sodium and potassium levels in leaves
• More information about the data can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.14225

Elite panel:

• Pedigree information
• SNP maker data
• RNAseq data from germinating grain following protocol published here (Supplementary Note 6): https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11543
• Phenotypic data of shoot growth derived from images, as well as manual traits and visual observations (e.g. row type)
• X-ray CT-derived phenotypic data of spike morphology and seed morphology

Landrace panel:

• SNP marker data
• Basic phenotypic data on height and row-type