Managing Global Genetic Resources Agricultural Crop Issues and Policies (1993) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
An Overview of Genetic Resources Management
An Overview of Genetic Resources Management
Pages 29-44
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From page 29... ...
Conserving genetic resources is a means of safeguarding the living materials exploited by agriculture, industry, forestry, and aquaculture to provide food, feed, medicinals, fiber for clothing and furnishing, fuel for cooking and heating, and the food and industrial products of microbial activity. Genetic resources are of tremendous practical and historical significance for human life from daily survival to generating the wealth of nations, yet their crucial role in supporting human society is frequently overlooked and undervalued.
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From page 30... ...
The cultivated plant materials that are conserved are of five general kinds: landrace, folk, or primitive varieties; obsolete varieties; commercial varieties or cultivars; plant breeders' lines; and genetic stocks. Landrace, folk, or primitive varieties are local varieties developed by indigenous farmers in traditional agricultural systems, over hundreds of years.
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From page 31... ...
, this report was limited to the staple · Single gene or single trait variants are lines carrying artificially generated or naturally occurring variants for qualitative characters. Examples include differences in morphological and physiological characters, electrophoretic variation in proteins, and fragment length variation generated by restriction enzymes in DNA.
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From page 32... ...
The obsolete crop varieties and livestock breeds and the unadapted wild relatives of crop plants frequently carry useful genes or alleles that, if not preserved, may no longer be available in the future. Modern, high-yielding crop varieties have largely replaced older landrace varieties even in many remote parts of the world.
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From page 33... ...
In setting aside the better forms for future use, humanity began the long process of selection and improvement responsible for the development of agriculture. The first crop plants and livestock were undomesticated wild species that gave rise, thousands of years later, to modern varieties and breeds.
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From page 34... ...
Obsolete varieties and breeds and closely related wild species were sources of useful variation that could be introduced into new forms by hybridization. Breeders assembled collections of useful and new materials that were described, cataloged, and tested and that THE U.S.
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From page 35... ...
Although germplasm conservation would appear to be designed to serve the interests of plant breeders, most modern breeders are interested primarily in highly adapted breeding lines that can be directly introduced into their crossing programs. Poorly adapted materials are less useful to them but can be a source of variation to remedy the limitations of their better lines.
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From page 36... ...
expressed concern about increasing genetic uniformity and the loss of genetic variation associated with the disappearance of natural habitats of wild relatives. Although earlier plant disease epidemics, such as the Irish potato famine in 1845 and 1846, had caused widespread suffering and death, the impact of genetic vulnerability on modern agriculture was dramatically exemplified by the southern corn leaf blight epidemic of 1970, which destroyed more than 15 percent of the U.S.
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From page 37... ...
of the United Nations sponsored the first of a series of technical conferences (Whyte and Julen, 1963~. A second technical conference, on plant exploration and genetic conservation, was planned and held jointly with the International Biological Program (IBP)
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From page 38... ...
The IRRI seed bank, with more than 80,000 rice accessions, is GERMPLASM CONSERVATION AND BIOTECHNOLOGY Much of the germplasm conserved today is kept as seeds in germplasm banks, planted in nurseries and gardens, or kept in refrigerators as planting stock or tissue cultures. These materials are conserved ex situ, that is, away from their natural place of origin or where they were originally selected.
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From page 39... ...
, International Center for Research in Agroforestry [ICRAF] , International Crops Research Inmaterials such as herbarium specimens, inviable seeds, and fossils suggests that these materials may become useful genetic resources.
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From page 40... ...
DISSENTING VIEWS Although many of the plant scientists involved in germplasm conservation believed that the mechanisms being put in place for protecting global genetic resources were both sound and fair, their view was strongly challenged by sociopolitical activist groups who regarded seeds and genetic resources as a common heritage of humankind (Mooney, 1979, 1983~. Critics claimed that IBPGR enabled
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From page 41... ...
These trends included slowing the collection of seed crops and placing greater emphasis on characterization, documentation, and information exchange; focusing collection efforts on meeting emergency situations and filling important gaps; accelerating work on clonal crops and research on in vitro conservation; giving high priority to data-base development; and paying more attention to wild species so that collections are more representative of gene pools. Concern was expressed for the first time about the con
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From page 42... ...
Patents and plant variety protection procedures were used to protect "plant breeders' rights." In the course of discussions in FAO commission meetings about the commercial exploitation of germplasm, "farmers' rights" emerged as a counterpart to plant breeders' rights. Widely misinterpreted as a system for financially rewarding farmers from developing countries for selecting landraces, the concept now focuses on the importance of the past, present, and future contribution of farmers in general to the development of agriculturally important germplasm.
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From page 43... ...
The IRRI germplasm bank is one of the largest and best organized germplasm banks. The analysis demonstrates the cost-effectiveness of conserving a broad array of rice germplasm, and it exemplifies the importance of properly managed and accessible germplasm for all crops.
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