Decision support system for efficient utilization of maize germplasm for hybrid development

Abstract

A Decision Support System (DSS) for efficient utilization of maize inbred line germplasm has been developed using the latest version of Drupal (7.34); Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) was used for frontend development and database (backend) was developed in My Structured Query Language (MySql). The DSS houses a database with information on 12 traits viz. days to 50% anthesis, days to 50% silk emergence, density of spikelets, number of kernel rows, grain type, plant height, ear placement height, anthocyanin colouration at base of glume, anthocyanin colouration of anthers, anthocyanin colouration of silks, kernel row arrangement and 1000-kernel weight against each inbred lines in addition it has Image Library feature which displays ear and tassel images of the maize inbred lines. The system was designed as per the requirements and available at http://wnciimr.org. The DSS is first of its kind developed for maize in India. It helps in taking informed decision to accelerate the utilization of germplasm. It significantly reduces the duplicity of experiments to generate information on simply inherited traits and thus, enhances the scientific productivity to a great extent.