Editorials in 2016

Agriculture has depended since its Neolithic origins upon spontaneous or induced genetic variation. Human selection on naturally occurring variation in flowering is the most frequent source of domesticated crop plants. In the current era of rapid technological advance in reading and writing genomes, we advocate universal access to some safe modular variation in flower, leaf and color traits that can be operated without labs or restrictions by ordinary farmers and gardeners.

Investment in national infrastructure should include a scalable open informatics solution for agricultural genomics, germplasm and crop traits. This is a priority measure for economic stimulus and food security. As building this knowledge harvester should be simpler than the infrastructure required for precision medicine, it will also pave the way to that goal.

Single-nucleotide variation (SNPs or SNVs) in the human genome is now being used by the public and by researchers interested in the functional mechanisms of genetic perturbation for the 3D structure and function of the nucleus in various cells and tissues, and for understanding human–microbiota interactions. We have some requests for authors that may help prevent misunderstanding as familiar genetic markers acquire new users.

A prevalent but trivial systematic error in supplementary tables provides a reminder that genomic and other large data files are most usable when they are readable by both humans and machines. It is best practice to deposit large files in public databases and to provide accession links for peer review rather than to delay data deposition until publication.

The coevolution of staple crops and human society can be traced in the relics of ancient genomes and in population genetic signatures that our interdependence has left on our genomes and those of our crop plants. Patterns of geographical adaptation in the genomes of local crop varieties connect millennia of survival strategies of subsistence farmers with future agricultural improvement in the face of challenges from environmental changes.

A recent recommendation that a large number of professional data stewards be trained and employed in all data-rich research projects raises the exciting prospect they will conduct research on data-intensive research itself. It also focuses us on questions about the role of all scientists in data quality and accessibility as well as how best to measure the value of good data stewardship to science and society.

Precision medicine is a sufficiently imprecise term to cover cohort research in epidemiology as well as evidence-based improvements in clinical delivery and informatics. We think it should continue to build and improve upon the rigorous standards for measurement of genome sequence variation.

The genetics of plant breeding cannot by itself end hunger and malnutrition nor ensure sustainable food production. However, driven by genomics, it provides tools with which to raise the research profile and standards of two related fields that together will do so: agronomy, as it relates to crop ecology and evolution, and nutritional natural products research.

Comparison of evolutionary adaptations and innovations illuminates the genetic basis for the development of animal forms. Gene networks that retain similar wiring diagrams in diverse and distantly related organisms point to the ways in which regulatory regions of the genome evolve. We may be close to being able to use comparative genomics to predict the evolvability of gene networks.

The FAIR data principles are simple guidelines for ensuring that machines can find and use data, supporting data reuse by individuals. More—and better—research can be generated by designing data and algorithms to be findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable, together with the tools and workflows that led to these data.

The migration of cancer genomics data to cloud computing is a great encouragement for data reuse and integration by bioinformaticians and other data symbionts. Because the cloud allows rapid, transparent and reproducible research on large data sets, we are keen to consider articles and analyses submitted to the journal that provide peer referee access to their constituent cloud projects.

The journal endorses the principle of transparency in the production of genome-edited crops and livestock as a precondition for the registration of a breed or cultivar, with no further need for regulation or distinction of these goods from the products of traditional breeding.