The rapidly growing availability of genotype data from global wheat genebanks – including the Australian Grains Genebank – presents major challenges for data management and interoperability. Each genebank accession has associated passport information which is stored in centrally managed global databases such as Genesys-PGR. Users accessing the genotype data from the genebank will often want to filter accessions based on passport information, but this traditionally needs both types of information in a single database, which necessitates duplication of data and leads to potential synchronisation issues and overheads.

To tackle this problem, we developed a middleware solution called Genolink to seamlessly integrate genotype databases and genebank passport repositories like Genesys-PGR. Genolink allows users, for example, to filter accessions in Genesys-PGR based on passport data or specified lists, retrieve related genotype data from multiple genomic platforms, and to consolidate the datasets effectively. Our approach significantly reduces data redundancy and enhances data accessibility and interoperability across systems, ensuring requested data is always current.

Genolink fits into a wider ecosystem of tools and interfaces that support genebank genomics, with support for the Breeders API (BrAPI). In addition, Genolink provides interfaces for independent user-facing tools such as the AVR-developed web-based genomic visualisation tool Pretzel to exploit its functionality.