Computer aided data acquisition tool for high-throughput phenotyping of plant populations

BACKGROUND: The data generated during a course of a biological experiment/study can be sometimes be massive and its management becomes quite critical for the success of the investigation undertaken. The accumulation and analysis of such large datasets often becomes tedious for biologists and lab technicians. Most of the current phenotype data acquisition management systems do not cater to the specialized needs of large-scale data analysis. The successful application of genomic tools/strategies to introduce desired traits in plants requires extensive and precise phenotyping of plant populations or gene bank material, thus necessitating an efficient data acquisition system. RESULTS: Here we describe newly developed software "PHENOME" for high-throughput phenotyping, which allows researchers to accumulate, categorize, and manage large volume of phenotypic data. In this study, a large number of individual tomato plants were phenotyped with the "PHENOME" application using a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) with built-in barcode scanner in concert with customized database specific for handling large populations. CONCLUSION: The phenotyping of large population of plants both in the laboratory and in the field is very efficiently managed using PDA. The data is transferred to a specialized database(s) where it can be further analyzed and catalogued. The "PHENOME" aids collection and analysis of data obtained in large-scale mutagenesis, assessing quantitative trait loci (QTLs), raising mapping population, sampling of several individuals in one or more ecological niches etc.