Germplasm preservation: objectives and needs

Abstract

Germplasm is the hereditary message which dictates the development of plants and animals. This biological information is passed from generation to generation in an unbroken chain of living cells. Unlike other resourses, once cell life is lost, the germplasm is lost, therefore for all practical purposes it is stored only in living systems. For convenience germplasm resources can be grouped into several levels of usefulness and management:

• 1. Varieties and breeds in current use,

• 2. Obsolete cultivars and minor breeds,

• 3. Primitive cultivar/landraces and folk breeds of indigenous agriculture,

• 4. Wild and weedy/feral taxa and near relatives of useful animals and crops,

• 5. Special genetic stocks which are the tools of breeders,

• 6. Special coadapted genetic stocks where two or more taxa have a symbiotic relationship (pollinator, nodule forming bacteria etc.) and

• 7. Lastly organisms of no apparent immediate usefulness but which are part of the web of life.

Germplasm of the last category is best held in natural systems or entire biomes. The remaining more immediately useful plants and animals once held in the now disappearing peasant agriculture are assembled in situ or more extensively ex situ in genebanks. The problem with the easier to manage ex situ banking is that it withdraws seed and semen/ova from observation and evaluation. In my view genebanks are only banks if the holdings are used, and depositories if their mission is preservation. Unfortunately, germplasm is being lost in some holding institutions and they have become, sadly, germplasm morgues. If the expense and efficacy of storage is to be proven the breeders are going to have to do a significantly better job of evaluating the material held and making this information/material freely and universally available to all, both nationally and internationally, for crop and animal improvement.