Plant breeding is fundamentally comprised of three cyclic activities: (a) intermating lines to generate novel allelic combinations, (b) evaluating the newly created lines in diverse environments, and (c) selecting superior individuals to be used as parents in the next breeding cycle. While digital technologies and tools are commonly utilized for the latter two stages, many plant research programs still rely on manual annotation and paper tags to track the crosses that constitute the basis of a plant breeding program. This presence of analog data is a crack in the foundation of a digital breeding ecosystem and a significant occasion for errors to be introduced that will propagate through the entire breeding process. However, implementing digital cross tracking into breeding programs is difficult due to the nonstandardized workflows that different breeders have adopted. Intercross, an open-source Android app, aims to provide scientists with a robust and simple solution for planning, tracking, and managing the crosses being made each season and aims to serve as the primary tool to digitize crossing data for breeding programs. The simplicity and flexibility of Intercross allows rapid and broad adoption by diverse breeding programs and will solidify the concepts of a digital breeding ecosystem.

中文翻译：

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Intercross：用于植物育种和遗传学交叉管理的 Android 应用程序

植物育种基本上由三个循环活动组成：(a) 杂交品系以产生新的等位基因组合，(b) 在不同环境中评估新创建的品系，以及 (c) 在下一个育种周期中选择优秀的个体作为亲本. 虽然后两个阶段通常使用数字技术和工具，但许多植物研究计划仍然依赖人工注释和纸质标签来跟踪构成植物育种计划基础的杂交。这种模拟数据的存在是数字育种生态系统基础上的一个裂缝，也是引入错误的重要场合，这些错误将在整个育种过程中传播。然而，由于不同育种者采用的非标准化工作流程，在育种计划中实施数字交叉跟踪很困难。Intercross 是一款开源 Android 应用程序，旨在为科学家提供一个强大而简单的解决方案，用于规划、跟踪和管理每个季节进行的杂交，并旨在作为将杂交数据数字化以用于育种计划的主要工具。Intercross 的简单性和灵活性允许各种育种计划快速和广泛地采用，并将巩固数字育种生态系统的概念。