A. Databases
We need the infrastructure to stably support and maintain high-capacity databases that are accessible and updated.
We need more investment in high-performance computing and network connectivity.
We need high quality data and the corresponding metadata on the composition of phytobiomes representing a much wider range of plant hosts and habitat types.
We need the tools and software to analyze and integrate data available in the public domain that can be used to inform about phytobiomes.
We need to collaborate with professionals and/or organizations who have expertise in computer science, information technology, software design, engineering, and physics for analysis of data already in the public domain.
We need to promote training in software design and in analysis of metadata to access, aggregate, and integrate data that is available in the public domain, to obtain information about all components of the phytobiomes in agricultural systems and other environments.
B. Culture collections
We need the infrastructure to stably support and maintain a national plant microbial germplasm collection network, so that phytobiome data can be linked to publicly available cultures, and thus also to the genomic, phenotypic, and ecological data associated with them in ongoing research.
