Viticulture, like other fields of agriculture, is currently facing important challenges that will be addressed only through sustained, dedicated and coordinated research. Although the methods used in biology have evolved tremendously in recent years and now involve the routine production of large data sets of varied nature, in many domains of study, including grapevine research, there is a need to improve the findability, accessibility, interoperability and reusability (FAIR-ness) of these data. Considering the heterogeneous nature of the data produced, the transnational nature of the scientific community and the experience gained elsewhere, we have formed an open working group, in the framework of the International Grapevine Genome Program (www.vitaceae.org), to construct a coordinated federation of information systems holding grapevine data distributed around the world, providing an integrated set of interfaces supporting advanced data modeling, rich semantic integration and the next generation of data mining tools. To achieve this goal, it will be critical to develop, implement and adopt appropriate standards for data annotation and formatting. The development of this system, the GrapeIS, linking genotypes to phenotypes, and scientific research to agronomical and oeneological data, should provide new insights into grape biology, and allow the development of new varieties to meet the challenges of biotic and abiotic stress, environmental change, and consumer demand.
Diploid alfalfa, Medicago sativa L. (HG2‐2x), was used to select variant cell lines resistant to growth inhibition caused by ethionine. Plants from 23 of 91 mutagenized HG2‐2x cell lines grown on 0.02 mM DL‐ethionine were morphologically different from the original plant. Plants with multifollolate leaves, elongated petiolules, compact growth habit, jagged leaf margins, and appendage‐like leaflets were identified. Several diploid and tetraploid plants outyielded HG2‐2x (2n = 16) and HG2‐4x (2n = 32), respectively, replicated study of spared plants. Variation also occurred for plant height, length of the longest shoot, and number of primary branches after 7 weeks. Most of the 91 cell lines produced diploid plants (66) whereas the remainder produced tetraploid (20), aneuploid (4), hexaploid (1) plants. Aneuploidy (2n = 33 and 2n 31) was concomitant with morphological abnormalities. Few variants were observed among plants regenerated from mutagenized cultures which were not treated with ethionine. Therefore,. the mutagenic effects of ethionine may be responsible for the appearance of a high frequency of variants. The possibility that useful variation might be obtained from alfalfa tissue cultures is discussed.
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