| Abstract Detail
Conference Wide Engels, Johannes M.M. [1], van Treuren, Robbert [2].
Towards a rational, secure and effective long-term conservation strategy. An analysis of the history of how most of the existing germplasm collections have been established, and comparing the outcome of this analysis with what one would expect that such collections should contain in terms of genetic diversity for a given genepool, allows the conclusion that the content of existing ex situ collections leaves room for improvement, especially from a long-term conservation perspective.
Many of these collections have grown out of breeders’ working collections that consisted of a selected set of accessions and/or have been established by countries and/or national or institutional genebanks with the aim of providing genetic diversity to users, predominantly plant breeders. This approach has resulted in considerable redundancy and in genetic diversity gaps, both from a genetic diversity as well as from a geographic perspective.
A long-term germplasm collection should contain an adequate representation of the total existing genetic diversity of that genepool (both, in situ as well as ex situ) in as few as possible accessions to be rational. This principle begs the question if a long-term conservation collection should aim at storing genotypes or genes/alleles.
Modern genomic and information management tools allow now more efficient and effective conservation approaches and methodologies to be applied and this results among others in:
1. Better monitoring of routine conservation activities (especially collecting and regeneration);
2. Attempts to work towards more adequately composed collections for long-term conservation, including the identification of collection gaps, unwanted duplicates and genetic redundancy;
3. Better coordinated and more complementary conservation efforts between in situ and ex situ conservation programmes;
4. More efficient collaboration efforts between genebanks, countries and regions (e.g. establishment and operation of a virtual European genebank system - AEGIS; rationalisation efforts of the Global Crop Diversity Trust);
5. More rational and cost efficient conservation efforts;
6. Better services to users.
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Related Links:
WS1 Applying Modern Genomic Tools to the Management and Characterization of Plant Genetic Resources
1 - Bioversity International, Via dei Tre Denari 472/a, Maccarese (Fiumicino), Rome, 00057, Italy
2 - Centre for Genetic Resources, The Netherlands (CGN), P.O. Box 16, Wageningen, 6700 AA, The Netherlands
Keywords:
genetic resources.
Presentation Type: Workshop
Session: W1
Location: Blair CD/Gage
Date: Sunday, July 27th, 2008
Time: 10:00 AM
Number: W1003
Abstract ID:1166 |
