Database requirements for QTL mapping in livestock

Abstract

Genetic mapping in livestock and the hunt for quantitative trait loci have been concentrated in several small to medium size laboratories. Information systems developed at these laboratories to support research range from full relational database management systems with World Wide Web interfaces to spreadsheets on standalone microcomputers. There has been little coordination of effort on database issues between laboratories. Sharing and combining data between laboratories is at best difficult and time consuming. Obstacles to effective data exchange go beyond networks and software and often result from differences in conceptual schema, nomenclature, and semantics. Data sharing capabilities may be improved by physically consolidating data or by integrating distributed data. This presentation describes and compares specific information system architectures felt to be viable alternatives for a cooperative strategy to improve data sharing capabilities.