Genetic resources

Plant genetic resource collections are vital to plant breeding efforts. In the early 1990s, one survey concluded that the Jerusalem artichoke gene pool available to plant breeding may not exceed 150 accessions (van Soest et al., 1993). However, even given duplications in different collections, this appears to be an underestimate. Many hundreds of accessions are today maintained in plant germplasm collections worldwide. These include wild and weedy accessions, landraces or traditional and obsolete cultivars, and advanced or improved cultivars. 

Seeds of Diversity Canada (formerly the Heritage Seed Program) operates from Toronto and cultivates accessions of Jerusalem artichoke as part of a conservation program (MacNab, 1989). The program includes material from wild populations and populations established from material originally planted in gardens. 

Biology and Chemistry of Jerusalem Artichoke Helianthus tuberosus L. 

The 179 Accessions Maintained in the Collection of Plant Gene Resources of Canada (PGRC), Saskatoon, Canada, in 2006 

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Although it is possible to obtain cells from whole animals or plants and to cultivate them in suitable nutrient solutions, in general they are not as easy to handle as microbes. Nevertheless, plant and animal cells are a valuable genetic resource for biotechnology and many newly developed bioprocesses rely on transfer of their genes to micro-organisms. 

The quantification of adaptation is difficult because it is unlikely that any plant is in a state of perfect adaptation to its environment since it is made up of a collection of ancestral characteristics and the process of adaptation is occurring continually. Indeed, Harper (1982) has argued that we should refer to abaptation rather than adaptation - evolution from rather than evolution towards. We can say that adaptation to an environment depends on the possession of an optimum combination of characters that minimises deleterious effects and maximises advantageous effects (Bradshaw, 1965). We must bear in mind, however, that non-adaptive characters may evolve in parallel with adaptive characters by pleiotropy, and that the direction of adaptive change is limited by the available genetic resources of the species (Harper, 1982). This is part of the reason why Harper (1982) argues that... 

Withers, L.A. (1980). Tissue culture storage for genetic conservation, IBPGR Report. International Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome, Italy, 91 pp. 

Recently, the genetic information has been tremendously expanded and the functions of the proteins are assumed and discussed hy homology comparison of their primary and higher structures. However, it goes without saying that their functions are not fully understood by these methods, until the properties of the proteins are proven hy experiments. It is one of the surest ways to express the gene and prove its functions by actual experiments, if one would really like to use the genetic resources. 

Jackson, I. J. (1991). Mouse coat colour mutations a molecular genetic resource which spans the centuries. BioEssays 13 439-446. 

Banno, Y., Fujii, H., Kawaguchi, Y. et al. 2005. A Guide to the Silkworm Mutants 2005. Fukuoka, Japan Silkwork Genetics Division, Institute of Genetic Resources, Kyushu University. 

K.T. Kate and S.A. Laird (Eds.), The Commercial Use of Biodiversity Access to Genetic Resources and Benefit Sharing, Earthscan, Kew, UK. 

Legumes Breeding Group, Plant Genetic Resources Department, Misidn Bioldgica de Galicia,... 

Herrera-Cervera JA, CabaUero-Mellado J, Laguerre G, Tichy HV, Requena N, Amarguer N, Martinez-Romero E, Olivares J, Sanjuan J (1999) At least five rhizobial species nodulate Phaseolus vulgaris in a Spanish soil. FEMS Microbiol Ecol 30 87-97 Hidalgo R (1988) The Phaseolus world collection. In Gepts P (ed) Genetic resources of Phaseolus beans. Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp 67-90... 

Smartt J (1988) Morphological, physiological and biochemical changes in Phaseolus beans under domestication. In Gepts P (ed) Genetics resources of Phaseolus beans their maintenance, domestication, evolution and utilization. Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp 543-560... 

Tohme J, Jones P, Beebe S, Iwanaga M (1995) The combined use of agroecological and characterisation data to establish the CIAT Phaseolus vulgaris core collection. In Hodgkin T, Brown ADH, Van Hitum TJL, Morales EAV (eds) Core collections of plant genetic resources. IPGRI-Wiley, Chinchester, pp 95-107... 

Arabidopsis A Small Weed and Its Genetic Resources for Volatile Terpene Biosynthesis... 

Foster S, Medicinal plant conservation and genetic resources Examples from the temperate Northern hemisphere, Acta //ort 330 67—73, 1993. 

Aniszewski, T. 1995. Editorial. Science of Legumes, 2 136 and, Smartt, J. 1990. Grain legumes. Evolution and genetic resources. Cambridge - New York - Port Chester - Melbourne - Sydney Cambridge University Press. 

Aguilar, G. Access to Genetic Resources and Protection of Traditional Knowledge in the Territories of Indigenous Peoples. Environmental Science Policy Vol. 4 (2001) 241-256. 

Hawkes, J. G. (1990). The Potato Evolution, Biodiversity and Genetic Resources. Belhaven Press, London. 

Huaman, Z., Golmirzaie, A., Amoros, W. (1997). The Potato. In D. Fuccillo, L. Sears, P. Stapleton (Eds.), Biodiversity in Trust Conservation and Use of Plant Genetic Resources in CGIAR Centres (pp. 21-28). Cambridge. 

Spooner, D. M., Salas, A. (2006). Structure, Biosystematics, and Genetic Resources. In J. Gopal, S. M. P. Khurana (Eds.), Handbook of Potato Production, Improvement, and Postharvest Management (pp. 1-39). Food Products... 

Hijmans, R. J., Spooner, D. M., Salas, A. R., Guarino,L., de laCruz, J. (2002). Atlas of Wild Potatoes. International Riant Genetic Resources Institute, Rome, Italy. 

Jansky, S. H., Peloquin, S. J. (2006). Advantages of wild diploid Solanum species over cultivated diploid relatives in potato breeding programs. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution, 53, 669-674. 

Jansen, G., Flamme, W. (2006). Coloured potatoes (Solanum Tuberosum L.) - Anthoeyanin Content and Tuber Quality. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution, 53 T), 1321-1331. 

Conservation of plant genetic resources, preserving those plants threatened in the wild... 

Cite as USDA, ARS, National Genetic Resources Program. Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). [Online Database] National Germplasm Resources Laboratory, Beltsville, Maryland. Available http //www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/tax search.pl Salvia+divinorum (04 September 2001)... 

To maintain and conserve genetic diversity through attention to on-farm management of genetic resources. 

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