Using open data to survey the transposon landscape in complex polyploid genomes and uncover the mechanisms controlling TE mobility

In the last few years there has been an explosion of freely available genomic data for a large number of globally important crops. This makes it possible for scientists with the correct skill set to ask fundamental biological questions that will directly impact the future of crop breeding. Editor-in-chief of Nature, the geneticist Dr. Magdalena Skipper said, "Science is becoming increasingly analytically complex and data rich, so there is an increased focus on data and computation. We have taken some amazing strides, but there is more to be done".