OzBarley: Advancing barley research through cutting-edge collaboration

Overview 
OzBarley is a major collaborative project to combine genotypic and phenotypic data representing the full history of barley breeding in Australia.

Why
Crop improvement programs often require the establishment of germplasm collections linked to phenotypic data which can add several years of research, costing valuable time and capital.

Outcomes
An elite panel of 220 plus approximately 500 additional landraces created a platform for bioinformatics research where ‘omics’ data and layered phenotypic data create lead to novel analysis approaches and a resource for Barley Breeders everywhere. 

Impact:
OzBarley will help deliver improved barley cultivars to growers, thereby ensuring Australia remains a global leader in sustainable barley production. 

Benefits will include:
1.  Lower cost of breeding programs.
2.  Greater speed of variety development and release.
3.  Lower barriers to entry.
4.  Greater success in addressing key challenges.
5.  Improved overall genetic gain.

Barley is Australia’s second most important cereal crop (after wheat) and Australia is a key player in global barley markets, exporting up to 40 percent of the world’s premium malting barley and 20 percent of feed barley. 

About 3.8 million hectares of land was dedicated to barley production in 2023/24, yielding 13.5 million tonnes of grain with a total value of $3.7 billion[1]. Some 13,500 businesses reported barley sales, with barely exports earning the country approximately $2.6 billion per year. 

The innovative OzBarley project received initial investment from APPN,  ARDC (Australian Research Data Commons) and BPA (BioPlatforms Australia), with generous co-contributions by ten other national and international partners from the public and private sectors. It aims to transform ongoing barley research in Australia through the creation of a national data asset that integrates all available genetic (genotypic) and trait-based (phenotypic) information.

Barley growers face mounting constraints including a warming climate, water scarcity, soil constraints and rising costs of production.

To stay competitive and meet global demand, innovative solutions are needed to improve barley’s performance and resilience. However, crop improvement programs often require the establishment of germplasm collections and genotypic data. Obtaining this material usually adds several years of research before any breeding and phenotyping of new lines can begin, costing valuable time and capital. 

The OzBarley project will address these challenges by creating a comprehensive genotypic and phenotypic database of barley cultivars, making the breeding process faster, more efficient and more cost-effective. 

OzBarley will thus lower the barriers to developing improved barley cultivars, enabling Australian farmers and plant breeders to adapt to climate change, resource scarcity and increasing global food demand.

OzBarley has successfully gathered and consolidated genotypic and phenotypic data for essential Australian barley germplasm in a single open-access national resource, governed by FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, reusable) data principles.

An OzBarley elite panel of 220 lines was established through an open call to barley researchers and breeders for material of interest. Approximately 500 additional landraces were also sourced from around the world via the Australian Grains Genebank (AGG) for a variety of desirable traits such as salt tolerance and drought resilience. 

Integration with international repositories (e.g. barley pangenome) and AGG digital atlas activities will support the comparison of Australian germplasm with international collections, and provide a platform for bioinformatics research where the different types of ‘omics’ data and layered phenotypic data create opportunities to develop novel analysis approaches. 
 

The key features of this national data asset are:

• Comprehensive Data Integration 
  OzBarley combines pedigree, genotypic (SNP chip, RNAseq), transcriptomic (RNAseq), phenotypic, and imaging data (e.g. X-ray CT scans of barley spikes) allowing research to directly link genotypes to phenotypic outcomes.
• Machine Learning and Analytics
  OzBarley enables complex trait analysis using advanced computational methods, including the integration of genomics with field performance data.
• Living Datasets
  OzBarley is designed for continuous data addition, supporting long-term relevance and impact.

Additionally, open access to the OzBarley field trial sites (needed to acquire and validate phenotypic data) allows researchers to measure traits of interest or test innovative phenotyping technologies without having to establish their own field trials. New data generated through this access is integrated back into the OzBarley database.

OzBarley will help deliver improved barley cultivars to growers, thereby ensuring Australia remains a global leader in sustainable barley production.

Access to genotypic and cross-omics datasets for these diverse barley lines will allow researchers and plant breeders to fully explore the genetic drivers for specific traits of interest, providing a ‘ready-made’ foundation for further breeding and barley improvement. 

Direct impacts of the program include: 

1. Lower cost of breeding programs.  Breeders can directly search the database for phenotypic and genomic data on cultivars which can be incorporated into their breeding strategies, rather than having to conduct their own dedicated field trials.

2. Greater speed of variety development and release. The availability of this genotypic and phenotypic data through OzBarley may cut up to two years from typical breeding programs.

3. Lower barriers to entry. The existence of an established dataset will encourage more researchers to work on barley, especially smaller teams and early career researchers.

4. Greater success in addressing key challenges facing the barley industry including:

• improving heat tolerance.
• improving disease resistance.  
• improving salinity tolerance. improving drought resistance.
• reducing yield loss due to lodging, brackling and head loss.
• improving management of grain protein, which is critical for malting quality. improving yield through improved shoot architecture.

5. Improved overall genetic gain. Integrating the above impacts is likely to improve the overall rate of genetic gain (annual yield increase) in Australian barley.

The impacts and benefits of OzBarley will also be broadly spread, supporting barley growers, exporters and the food and beverage industry. 

More resilient and productive barley breeds will help protect and expand Australia’s $3.7 billion barley industry and $2.6 billion annual barley export earnings, while supporting jobs in agriculture, rural communities, food and beverage production and supply chains. 

Finally, OzBarley provides a blueprint for similar projects in other crop sectors including wheat, legumes, oilseeds, pasture species and horticulture – to accelerate development of solutions for critical global challenges such as climate change, food security and more sustainable farming systems. 

OzBarley’s successfully leverages existing infrastructure and expertise enabled by the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) network. 

The initiative has received investment from:

• Australian Plant Phenomics Network (APPN): Provided facilities for growing and phenotyping barley plants.
• Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC): Supported data management and the development of a publicly accessible platform.
• Bioplatforms Australia (BPA): Offered genotyping infrastructure and data processing capabilities.

The project is led by APPN’s Adelaide Node, The Plant Accelerator®, based at the University of Adelaide’s Waite campus. Critical infrastructure provided by The Plant Accelerator® has included non-destructive, conveyor-based shoot imaging system and X-ray CT spike imaging technologies.

The project has also benefited from participation and contributions by the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), which supported the completion and launch of the OzBarley G2P data platform, along with

genotyping and inclusion of 500 globally sourced barley landraces in the OzBarley database (GRDC project code UOA2306-010RTX)

Significant co-contributions and specialist research skills and infrastructure have been provided by industry partners Australian Grain Technologies [AGT], InterGrain, and Secobra Recherches; along with public research organisations including the University of Adelaide, CSIRO, Charles Sturt University, Australian Genome Research Facility (AGRF), Australian Grains Genebank (AGG), and the James Hutton Institute.

These collaborations helped reduce the time and cost of the project, enabling researchers to access genotypic and phenotypic data for over 700 unique barley lines in record time.

Through additional support from GRDC, the project has also included open-access field trials of the OzBarley elite panel across New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia. These field trials are coordinated by the APPN team with local support from OzBarley project partners.

OzBarley is accessed via a web landing page (https://ozbarley.plantphenomics.org.au/#/home) or  DOI link (https://doi.org/10.47486/XN001), which provides user-friendly access to the Germinate data library, RNA sequence read archive and imaging data hosted by the Pawsey Data Portal at the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre.