Before we start…
Firstly, thanks for taking the time to look at our Germinate training. Its a work in progress but we hope to develop it into a helpful resource on using the platform. Check back regularly for updates and in particular we are developing small “how to” tutorials using data on grasspea and finger millet. This training has been created with the support of the Templeton World Charity Foundation, Inc. Grant ID TWCF0400 ‘Safeguarding crop diversity for food security: Pre-breeding complemented with Innovative Finance’ which is managed by the Crop Trust to whom we are grateful for supporting our vision.
We have tried to create a series of Germinate training sessions that can be used to get a handle on how to use Germinate and get hands on training on using the tools and features that Germinate offers. We will use a demo database that has been set up for this training and it is incredibly important to stress that where we are adding or editing data that you cannot break anything - just go for it, try things, and see how Germinate works!
The Germinate database that we will use can be accessed from https://ics.hutton.ac.uk/germinate-training.
We have broken down each training session into distinct sections. Most will start with a description of what the session will contain, some will have YouTube videos that explain and demonstrate the concepts we want to convey, some will have have additional information then a series of tasks and answers that will let you get experience in using Germinate using real data.
In sections where there may be example files that are used we will provide links to these so you can download to your computer.
This training has been designed for you to carry out at your own pace. Each section is self contained and while we recommend that you carry each out in series, you can do this training at your own pace and come back to sections if you are unsure or just want to try the user excersises again at the end of each section.
We absolutely understand that learning new software can be difficult and so if you have any problems whatsoever then please just ask. You can contact us on germinate@hutton.ac.uk and we will do what we can.
Important Germinate Links
We wont be able to cover everything here and we do have other information available on Germinate. Other resources include our GitHub page which will give you an overview of the project as well as links to where you can access the different publicly available Germinate databases for a wide variety of crops. You can also browse the Germinate source code on GitHub. All Germinate code is open-source and we always welcome contributions or logging bugs and feature requests which can be done from the Github page.
There are two main Germinate publications that are well worth reading and will give you a bit of background to the project.
Raubach, S, Kilian, B, Dreher, K, et al. From bits to bites: Advancement of the Germinate platform to support genetic resources collections and prebreeding informatics for crop wild relatives. Crop Science. 2021; 61: 1538– 1566. https://doi.org/10.1002/csc2.20248
Shaw, P.D., Raubach, S., Hearne, S.J., Dreher, K., Bryan, G., McKenzie, G., Milne, I., Stephen, G. and Marshall, D.F. (2017), Germinate 3: Development of a Common Platform to Support the Distribution of Experimental Data on Crop Wild Relatives. Crop Science, 57: 1259-1273. https://doi.org/10.2135/cropsci2016.09.0814
If you have any questions about Germinate or just want to chat through the benefits and features that it can offer please just drop us an email to germinate@hutton.ac.uk and keep an eye on @germinatehub on Twitter
So lets get started!
Next Steps: Germinate Session 1 Getting Started and Introduction to Germinate
About
This training has been created under the Templeton World Charity Foundation, Inc. Grant ID TWCF0400 ‘Safeguarding crop diversity for food security: Pre-breeding complemented with Innovative Finance’ which is managed by the Crop Trust. This training is free to use and released under a non-restrictive open source licence.
