SGN and BreedBase

Tomato is an important model for many aspects of plant biology, including plant defense, fruit ripening, and development. Sequencing of the tomato genome led to the creation of a genome database for tomato and other Solanaceae crops, the SGN database ( https://solgenomics.net/ ). In recent years, this database has been expanded to include breeding functions, made crop agnostic, and released as Breedbase ( https://breedbase.org/ ). Modern breeding methods integrate next-generation sequencing and phenomics to identify plants with the best characteristics and greatest genetic merit for use as parents in subsequent breeding cycles to ultimately create improved cultivars with high adoption rates by farmers. This data-driven approach hinges on strong foundations in data management, quality control, and analytics—aspects in which Breedbase excels. Because of the complexity of the breeding process, breeding databases also tend to be complex, often difficult to use, and expensive to implement and maintain. By contrast, Breedbase has user-friendly web interface enabling users to better manage and leverage data for decision-making, all within a fully integrated digital ecosystem, applicable to tomato and many other crops.