Taxonomy in GG-CE
Legacy GG requires that accessions link directly to one of GRIN Taxonomy records in TaxonomySpecies
. This list is curated by experts by USDA (for USDA) and kindly made available for wider use.
Since many @1cgiar/all collections (e.g. @1cgiar/nairobi, @1cgiar/addis and others) use taxon names that are not yet in GRIN Taxonomy, I suggest that we introduce a new approach in GG-CE that allows you to specify the taxon as you have it in your database today and link it to GRIN Taxonomy when/if it is available.
Proposal: Genebank taxonomy
A new table taxonomy_genebank
is added to GG-CE where you register the taxonomic names you already have in your databases. You manage these records separately from GRIN Taxonomy. The table generally follows MCPD descriptors.
This allows you to limit the list only to the species of interest to your collection.
All Accession
records link to the genebank taxonomy not to the GRIN Taxonomy directly. You are able to add Accession
s with your own taxonomic data.
But, you are still able to spell-check names against GRIN and link your taxonomy record to the matching record in GRIN TaxonomySpecies
, if available.
Extras: Hybrids
Many of you also maintain hybrids and those taxonomies are currently difficult to capture in TaxonomySpecies
.
The genebank taxonomy table would allow for registering names of unnamed hybrids (M. a x b) and applying them to your accessions.
Bonus: Simple updating of USDA Taxonomy
Since you are not adding records to TaxonomySpecies
, updating the GRIN Taxonomy from USDA assures you have a valid recent copy from NPGS.