INTERNATIONAL REGISTRATION OF CULTIVARS WITH EMPHASIS ON BARLEY: PROCEDURES AND METHODS OF PRODUCING A REGISTER

At first, the importance of international registration is briefly introduced. Then, it is stipulated that international registration should be facilitated and should be better done on the basis of an international register, for each particular group of cultivars that fall within a species or a genus. International registries for most of the important crops have yet to be made. The desirable characteristics that a register ought to include are described. The preparation of such a register is detailed on the basis of previous experience with oats and most especially recently with barley. This involves searching the literature, interpreting the literature and extracting the necessary information, the computer system, and the finished product. Production of the register relies heavily on a computer system which is also described. Justification for not incorporating descriptions of cultivars is given. Various methods of pedigree representation and their generation by computer have been published by different authors. These are discussed in the light of those used as part of the computer system for generating registers hereby described and used for barley. The main feature of the system is its capacity for retrieving ancestral pedigree information required for the various components of the registry.