A Global Information System for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA)
Elizabeth Arnaud, Michael Mackay, Dag Terje Filip Endresen, Sonia Dias, Rajesh Sood, Kiran Viparthi, Milko Skofic, Adriana Alercia, Tito Franco, Frederick Atieno, Xavier Scheldeman, Anzar Shamsie, Selim Louafi, Pete Cyr
Abstract
The overall goal of the project “Global Information on Germplasm Accessions” is to improve access by breeders and other users to the germplasm they need in gene banks around the world. The project covers all major food crops, with a focus on 22 crops: banana, barley, beans, breadfruit, cassava, chickpea, coconut, cowpea, faba bean, finger millet, grass pea, maize, major aroids, lentil, pearl millet, pigeon pea, potato, rice, sorghum, sweet potato, wheat, and yam, and a limited number of other crops of interest to the project collaborators.
The project specifically addresses the challenge of making readily available information about germplasm collections, which has been repeatedly identified as a key to increasing their use. It is being carried out in three components: 1) Developing information standards to describe the characteristics of genetic resources of most interest to users, by mobilizing germplasm users to agree on core subsets of characterization and evaluation standards; 2) Deploying the state-of-the-art global Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN-Global) gene bank data management system being developed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). GRIN-Global will be made available to national programmes and other gene banks; and 3) Building a global system for accessing and managing accession-level germplasm data to link national, regional and international gene bank databases in support of the conservation and use of the Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA) and in the framework of the International Treaty.
This global system will be based on two major databases:
- SINGER (System-wide Information Network for Genetic Resources), which gathers the records of 11 international CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) gene banks with records from the World Vegetable Center (AVRDC) – together, the members of SINGER hold more than half a million samples of crop, forage, and tree diversity in their germplasm collections (http://singer.cgiar.org); and
- EURISCO (European Internet Search Catalogue), which is a web-based catalogue that provides information about ex situ (maintained or found outside their natural habitat) plant collections maintained in Europe. EURISCO is based on a European network of ex situ National Inventories (NIs) and contains 1.1 million samples of crop diversity representing 1,450 genera and 8,665 species from 38 countries (http://eurisco.ecpgr.org/).
The project “Focused Identification of Germplasm Strategy (FIGS)” (http://www.figstraitmine.org/) is a final component of this network. This website allows users to efficiently integrate the data associated with this collection and facilitates identification of custom subsets of accessions with traits that may be of importance to breeding programmes.
The project specifically addresses the challenge of making readily available information about germplasm collections, which has been repeatedly identified as a key to increasing their use. It is being carried out in three components: 1) Developing information standards to describe the characteristics of genetic resources of most interest to users, by mobilizing germplasm users to agree on core subsets of characterization and evaluation standards; 2) Deploying the state-of-the-art global Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN-Global) gene bank data management system being developed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). GRIN-Global will be made available to national programmes and other gene banks; and 3) Building a global system for accessing and managing accession-level germplasm data to link national, regional and international gene bank databases in support of the conservation and use of the Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA) and in the framework of the International Treaty.
This global system will be based on two major databases:
- SINGER (System-wide Information Network for Genetic Resources), which gathers the records of 11 international CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) gene banks with records from the World Vegetable Center (AVRDC) – together, the members of SINGER hold more than half a million samples of crop, forage, and tree diversity in their germplasm collections (http://singer.cgiar.org); and
- EURISCO (European Internet Search Catalogue), which is a web-based catalogue that provides information about ex situ (maintained or found outside their natural habitat) plant collections maintained in Europe. EURISCO is based on a European network of ex situ National Inventories (NIs) and contains 1.1 million samples of crop diversity representing 1,450 genera and 8,665 species from 38 countries (http://eurisco.ecpgr.org/).
The project “Focused Identification of Germplasm Strategy (FIGS)” (http://www.figstraitmine.org/) is a final component of this network. This website allows users to efficiently integrate the data associated with this collection and facilitates identification of custom subsets of accessions with traits that may be of importance to breeding programmes.