Development of scientific databases

Background and Objective

In the scope of various projects of the institute, tissue samples of different tree species are beeing collected over the related geographical range and stored. These samples are very important for the current and future research at the 'Thünen  institute and very coveted in different national and international cooperations. Beyond, the samples provide the basis for subsequent research work, especially if new phenotyping and genotyping techniques and related markers are available.

In the database project, new samples should be registered in an existing web-based sample database, that includes already more than  30 000 sample entries. In the further course, also phenotypic and genotypic data of the related trees/samples generated by different projects will be included in the database, thus providing a basis for future association studies.

Approach

Based on an existing sample database, the following further developments are planned:

• The user interface should be extended to new functionalities, e.g. user-defined queries, and to the sample-independent management of tree data.
• The database should be enriched by related metadata and experimental data (phenotypic and genotypic data, such as molecular marker data).
• Moreover, the storage places of the samples in the institute could be registered in the database to optimize the access to the samples for further experimental work.