CropGPTer

What is the CropGPTer

The current state of global plant breeding still stands at Breeding 2.0 (mainly based on Mendelian and quantitative genetics), which lags far behind the needs of an increasing worldwide population. By incorporating advances in biotechnology and artificial intelligence (AI), the emerging Breeding 4.0 provides immense opportunities for a revolution in crop breeding. Here, we propose the CropGPTer project and issue a call for a global coordinated effort in AI-based precision designed breeding. CropGPTer aims to integrate various types of resources and technologies (e.g., elite germplasms, genetic resources, biological big-data and genome editing, doubled-haploid technology, AI), and adheres to an open, shared, win-win cooperation model. CropGPTer, which will rely on an open and shared philosophy from breeders, biologists, mathematicians, computer scientists, breeding companies and biotechnology companies, will play a key role in precision design breeding.