2  Welcome and Course Overview

2.1 Hello Baku Breeders!

Welcome to this introductory course on data analysis for plant genetics, a collaboration with ICARDA. We are excited to guide you through the essential tools and concepts needed to make sense of your valuable breeding data using R.

2.2 Course Objectives

• Learn the fundamentals of the R programming language for data tasks.
• Understand basic concepts of genomic data.
• Perform basic data loading, cleaning, and quality control.
• Grasp key genetic concepts like allele frequency and relatedness (kinship).
• Understand the idea behind marker-trait association studies (GWAS).
• Get introduced to tools like GIGWA and basic AI applications.

2.3 Course Structure

This course is divided into several modules, starting with setup and R basics, moving through data handling and genetic concepts, and ending with analysis methods and tools. Each module includes explanations and practical R exercises.

No prior programming experience is required!