A WEB-BASED SEARCHABLE DATABASE DEVELOPED FOR THE EGGNET PROJECT AND APPLIED TO THE RADBOUD UNIVERSITY SOLANACEAE DATABASE

Eggplants are economically important vegetables in some parts of the European Union. The EGGNET project funded by the European Commission (RESGEN PL 98–113) was designed to make better use of existing genetic resources of eggplants. The conservation of eggplant genetic resources and of Solanaceae in general is important. The Botanical and Experimental Garden of Radboud University, a participant in this project, manages an extensive collection of non-tuberous Solanaceae (3500 accessions), which contains many species of wild origin, including the wild relatives of eggplants. Principal EGGNET objectives have been to inventory all existing European Union germplasm collections and to create the EGGPLANT database. This EGGPLANT database has subsequently served in the development of a web-based searchable database of eggplants and related species. In this project, descriptor data (passport descriptors and characterization descriptors) and illustrations were collected from eggplant collections held by the project partners. To make all these data readily accessible, input modules (web-interfaces) were developed and the databases were functionally specified and transferred to the open source MySQL database structure. Because of their platform independence, data can be entered and modified by different authorised contributors all over the world. Two web-based search forms were developed, one for the EGGPLANT database (http://www.bgard.science.ru.nl/WWW-IPGRI/eggplant.htm) and one for the Radboud University Solanaceae database (http://www.bgard.science.ru.nl/ solanaceae). In addition, a Solanaceae Literature database (http://atropa. sci.kun.nl/rmwp) has been compiled by the Radboud University Botanical and Experimental Garden and linked to the EGGPLANT as well as to the Radboud University Solanaceae database.