Abstract

Rapeseed-mustard are major crops used for producing edible oil and are grown in nearly 6 million hectares in India. Germplasm collection is valuable gene pool providing diverse genetic material that may be applied for the improvement of cultivars. As more information is available about the germplasm, the wider selection and diversity of materials can be utilized for varietal improvement. The large number of rapeseed-mustard germplasm collected and evaluated is being maintained without computer databases. There is therefore a great need to develop Web-based germplasm database to store and access the large amounts of rapeseed-mustard plant genetic resource data. We have developed a web-enabled database of rapeseed-mustard germplasm using open source platform Linux - Apache - MySQL - PHP (LAMP). Web-enabled germplasm database allows users to interactively search and locate information in real time. This system is also configured to permit designated users who can remotely add, delete, or update information. This system can assist in decision-making activities that are related to germplasm documentation, conservation and management. The system facilitates to store and edit data on different characteristics as per the distinctiveness, uniformity and stability (DUS) descriptors and passport data for rapeseed-mustard. Presently, the database contains data on 40 characters which include 24 DUS characters that have been evaluated under Indian agro climatic conditions and others are relevant passport data. The system is accessible from any machine having web browser with internet connectivity.

Key words: Germplasm, database, rapeseed-mustard, Linux - Apache - MySQL - PHP (LAMP), distinctiveness, uniformity and stability (DUS).