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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Ithaca, New York » Robert W. Holley Center for Agriculture & Health » Plant, Soil and Nutrition Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #427959
Research Project: Championing Improvement of Sorghum and Other Agriculturally Important Species through Data Stewardship and Functional Dissection of Complex Traits

Location: Plant, Soil and Nutrition Research

Title: The Need for Robust, FAIR Phenomic Databases Supporting Agricultural Efficiency and Resiliency

Author
item MCNAMARA, JOHN - Washington State University
item Gladman, Nicholas
item CALLWOOD, JODI - Iowa State University
item CALEBIOGLU, BURCU - Oregon State University
item RODRIGUEZ, HARMINIA QUEZAD - University Of Mexico
item JUNG, JINHA - Purdue University
item CLARKE, JENNIFER - University Of Nebraska
item LACHOWIEC, JENNIFER - Montana State University

Submitted to: Trade Journal Publication
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 7/2/2025
Publication Date: 8/25/2025
Citation: Mcnamara, J.P., Gladman, N.P., Callwood, J., Calebioglu, B., Rodriguez, H.E., Jung, J., Clarke, J., Lachowiec, J. 2025. The Need for Robust, FAIR Phenomic Databases Supporting Agricultural Efficiency and Resiliency. Trade Journal Publication. 00, 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1093/scipol/scaf039.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/scipol/scaf039

Interpretive Summary: This white paper describes the details, applications, benefits, and future directions for phenomic databases. This manuscript addresses best practices for the communities going forward. Phenomic databases are repositories for physical trait data, such as yield, height, color, nutrient content, and many other observable metrics that are valuable to agricultural producers. Phenomics databases are crucial for advancing global agricultural improvements, especially when they are properly integrated with existing genomic databases that curate gene structure, variation, and expression information. By having inter-operable phenomic and genomic information structures, researchers, breeders, and stakeholders can more precisely conduct breeding programs that target valuable physical traits; such as disease resistance, yield, nutrient use efficiency and content.

Technical Abstract: The US agriculture and food systems research and education system remains the envy of the world, and the US Department of Agriculture and the Land-Grant University system lead the public and private partnerships that have improved agricultural productivity and human health phenomenally for over 160 years. The continuation of these improvements relies on equitable access to trustworthy data—particularly in genetics and phenomics—and the ability to leverage such data to address future scientific challenges. In this article, we discuss the growing need in agriculture for phenomic databases that follow findable, accessible, interoperable, and reproducible data (FAIR) guidelines, as well as the need for public policy supporting a sustainable funding model for these databases.