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PNL Volume 17 1985
GENE BANKS
 
 
THE PISUM CULTIVAR DATABASE; A RESOURCE
Winfield, P. J. and F. N. Breen Agricultural Scientific Services
Edinburgh, Scotland
The purpose of this note is to advertise the existence of a
database of pea cultivars and its associated software.
The Pisum Cultivar Database was created as an aid to cultivar
registration work in the United Kingdom. The database primarily holds
morphological and physiological data on 1350 cultivars and breeding
lines, including all those cultivars on the European (EEC) Common
Catalogue, those on the United Kingdom National List, and those entered
for registration or the awarding of Plant Breeders' Rights. Registered
material and material with Plant Breeders' Rights account for
approximately 750 of the 1350 lines. We also hold approximately 1380
seed accessions in our seed reference collection.
The database has approximately 70 morphological and physiological
descriptors plus passport information for each cultivar along with
further details concerning each seed accession. As far as possible, the
morphological characters describe the plant genotype. The descriptions
are based mainly on observations made over two years, 1983 and 1984. We
plan to grow the entire collection again in 1985 to fill gaps in the
database and to improve the quality of the data we have collected.
The database software is written in dBase II, a popular commercial
database package which runs on a wide range of micro-computers. We are
using a Cromemco System II. The database and its associated software
occupy 1.9 MB (megabytes) of disc space. The software allows data to be
added, deleted, or interrogated in a variety of ways. Cultivar
descriptions can be generated. The software can also be used to
identify or classify cultivars in any specified way.
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We feel the Pisum Cultivar Database is a resource for anyone
interested in peas. It should be particularly useful for breeders
interested in predicting registration difficulties or wishing to
determine the range of commercially available phenotypes.
We are willing to answer ad-hoc inquiries or provide cultivar
descriptions for anyone interested in receiving them, providing such
requests do not overtax our resources. Under some circumstances we may
not be able to divulge the parentage of cultivars. Two examples of such
inquiries might be: "Can you please list all cultivars on the Common
Catalogue without parchment (p or v) which flower at node 10 and have a
100-seed-weight between 20-30 grams" or "Please print descriptions for
all cultivars owned by company X".
We can also offer subsets of the database along with the software
and a user manual. There may be a small charge for this. At the
moment, dBase II is required to use the software.
We are aware that the scope and definition of the descriptors could
be improved, both for our own purposes and for those requesting
information on particular cultivars or lines in our collection. We
welcome any comments and suggestions concerning such improvements. We
intend, in the near future, to add some disease resistance information
to the database.
We are also interested in any cultivars which are about to be
registered or deregistered in countries outside Europe and in any
unusual genotypes.
For further information please inquire to the following-address:
Niall Green or Peter Winfield
Agricultural Scientific Services
Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland
East Craigs, Edinburgh EH12 8NJ, Scotland
Telephone (031) 339 2355 Telex: DAFASS 727348
Niall Green is responsible for all cultivar registration matters.
Peter Winfield wrote the database software. Both of us are interested
in describing and cataloging the variation in peas, particularly with
respect to cultivars.