A publication network of research in Brassicaceae from the past 25 years (2000-2025)

Capacity building in crucifer research – from BrassiBase to a taxonomic expert network (BrassiTEN) This is the a title of a recent contribution to Plant Systematics and Evolution (PSE). The main focus is the introduction to a new version of BrassiBase. BrassiBase is a developing knowledge system for Brassicaceae taxonomy, systematics, and evolution. The knowledge base includes cross-referenced information of species, genera and tribes, cytogenetic information, characters and provides valubale information about phylogenetic placment. Biological, molecular and evolutionary knowledge about the mustard family increases constantly. However, due to the complex and overwhelmingly large biological diversity of the family, it is difficult to assess research results within a larger evolutionary framework. Many species have been proven to be remarkable study objects but are rarely available. Biological material and resources, either collected directly in the wild or held in germplasm collections, have often been taxonomically misidentified; and only very rarely has the material been further characterized and documented. There is also no comprehensive survey of morphological character and biological trait distribution among Brassicaceae lineages, though reliable family-wide phylogenies are meanwhile available. We provide a comprehensive documentation of the taxonomy and systematics of the entire family. This includes a database with relevant taxonomic, systematic and phylogenetic literature, a comprehensive data collection of characters, a DNA-based identification tool for genera and species, electronic interactive keys for the identification of genera, and information on chromosome numbers and genome size. Originally, BrassiBase has been launched within the framework of the DFG (German Research Foundation) priority program SPP 1529 (2011 until end of 2018) and has been continued since then by scientists forming the Brassicaceae Taxonomic Expert Network (BrassiTEN). The herewith presented publication (co-author) network highlights the scientific impact of BrassiTEN members over the last 25 years (2000-2025). The interactive network is accessible online using the following link: https://app.vosviewer.com/?json=https://zenodo.org/records/15652856/files/20250605_brassicaceae_network.json?/content Alternatively, the uploaded file 20250605_brassicaceae.json can be opened with VOSViewer installed locally or open the file using the VOSViewer online app (https://app.vosviewer.com/.) Background and Aims Networks of scientists contributing in a concerted and coordinated way to our understanding of plant systematics and taxonomy are increasingly important. It is not only the need for named and categorized plant diversity as a solid basis to support and save threatened diversity all over the world, but also comparative analyses across taxa on all taxonomic levels are meanwhile widely presented. These efforts are fully dependent on a reliable taxonomic backbone, at best placed into a robust phylogenetic framework. Methods The taxonomic knowledge database BrassiBase was launched in 2012. Since then, phylogenetic knowledge accumulated considerably, and alongside major taxonomic improvements, reliable evolutionary concepts are available. Accordingly, a newly programmed version of BrassiBase has been released and is introduced herein, which now serves directly into WorldFloraOnline (WFO) and refers to the most timely phylogenetic analyses. Key Results The new version of BrassiBase comprises 61 tribes, 363 accepted genera, 4,148 accepted species names, 428 subspecies, 58 varieties (both excluding nominates) and a total of 10,725 synonyms, whereas WFO holds 4,544 species from 366 genera, 56 tribes, and 2 subfamilies due to integration of information from various sources, indicating further need for major curation. We show that all these efforts are tightly linked to a large and effectively networked group of scientists with a growing impact serving the scientific community. Conclusions We encourage scientists from various disciplines to team up and contribute in concerted and coordinated networks to improve our understanding of taxonomy, systematics and evolution of crucifers and, thereby, foster future inter- and transdisciplinary research in plant biology and beyond. Keywords: BrassiBase, Brassicaceae, Cruciferae, knowledge database, mustard family, taxonomic expert network, taxonomy, World Flora Online The uploaded files contain information on authors names and synonyms (20250605_brassicaceae_thesaurus.txt), scored publications (20250605_brassicaceae_scopus_2025.csv), the JSON file illustrating the final network (20250605_brassicaceae.json) and a detailed explanation of the selected settings for the analysis (20250605_explanations_network.pdf).