G. Hagedorn, G. Deml, M. Burhenne, O. M. Guerrero Cartin, T. Gräfenhan, M. Weiss

Synoptical Identification of Plant Pathogens

Federal Biological Research Center for Agriculture and Forestry
Institute for Plant Virology, Microbiology and biological Safety, Königin-Luise-Straße 19, D-14195 Berlin

The GLOPP-project ("Global Information System for the Biodiversity of Plant Pathogenic Fungi") aims to provide a unified view of data about fungi parasitizing higher plants. The information system will integrate data on host plant specificity, geographical distribution, and a core set of descriptive characters that allow an interactive online identification. Since our resources are limited, European pathogens will be treated with priority, to guarantee high data quality and a certain completeness. We plan to continue our work within the framework of international, collaborative successor projects.

The information system that is currently being developed will go beyond a simple compilation. It is planned as a critical scientific revision of the available data. Uncritical acceptance of misidentifications and degeneration of data quality will thus be avoided. Original information is kept strictly separate from assessments and interpretations. It will be possible to document the (possibly contradictory) assessments of multiple scientists. At the end of the project the information system will be available on the internet free of charge (see http:// www.GLOPP.net or http:// www.DiversityCampus.net).

The system is designed to enable farmers or the general public to identify fungal pathogens without having to study the complete list of characters and without access to the scientific literature. For example, a query might be: "Show all parasites that belong to imperfect fungi, which have been found on Rhododendron in Germany, and which have oblong, aseptate spores, 4 x 10 µm large". The information system would try to find all fungi that fulfill the given criteria based on past experience (i.e. information published in the literature or in herbaria). The system could provide error tolerant usage, by adding a second result list, which includes all records from the entire region (i.e. Europe), have been found on a species in the Ericaceae, and includes fungi that fullfil the descriptive criteria only approximately.

www Interface

 

Modular Data Editing and Analysis