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​PGR Documentation and Coordination ​

​PGR Documentation and Coordination ​

​Our activity is focus on the collection, structuring and publication of information on collections of plant germplasm conserved in the genebanks of the National Program of Plant Resources Network, in the coordination of its activities at the national and international levels and in the collection and inclusion of new materials in the Network. 

Grupo de investigación dependiente del

​Centro Nacional de Recursos Fitogenéticos

Plant Genetic Resources are described as the whole of species, varieties and types of plants, including local and commercial obsolete varieties, crop wild relatives and plant breeding material, that could be used as gene donors to obtain new varieties. These new varieties will be essentials to give response to the need of adaptation to new scenarios consequence of climate change, including biotic and abiotic resistances, the new user's demand or the requirements of the different agricultural systems. 

Conservation and utilization of these resources is a key element of global food security

Rational conservation of plant genetic resources started with the collection, study, curation and publication of the available information of this agro-biodiversity. This activity facilitates the knowledge and access to different actors of the agricultural system that could be interested in this subject (researcher, plant breeders, farmers…). These activities are carry out following international standard provided by FAO in the Plant Genetic Resources Second Word Action Plan and the related national legislation  (Ley 30/2006 y RD 199/2017).​​

​Research

Spain is, probably, the European country that possesses the biggest agro-biodiversity. The interest all over the country by their conservation and use has resulted in the creation of genebanks focused on the conservation of this genetic heritage. The National Program on Plant Genetic Resources for Agriculture and Food point that INIA is responsible for the coordination of these activities to facilitate a national overview. It is in response to this mandate that our group work in the next lines: 

Documentation.

The National Plant Genetic Resources Center (CRF) maintains and publishes the National Inventory of germplasm collections conserved ex situ. This Inventory includes the passport data of accession collections kept in the institutions that are part of the Spanish Program of Plant Genetic Resources Network. Data are structured according to a common descriptor, which corresponds to the multi-crop passport descriptors recommended by FAO/IPGRI (2015). Each inventory record represents material uniquely defined by a catalog number, which can identify the same entry deposited in different banks, where it could be recorded under different collection numbers.

Recientemente se ha lanzado una nueva aplicación web, desarrollada en colaboración con el COMAV de la Universidad Politécnica de Valencia que incorpora la información de pasaporte de todas las accesiones conservadas en la red de colecciones junto con la información de fenotipado morfo/agronómica. La aplicación está disponible en https://bancocrf.inia.es/es/ y a través de la misma los usuarios pueden realizar solicitudes de material a todos los bancos.

Prospection and Collection .

The acquirement of material that will constitute the collections of plant genetic resources is the first phase for their conservation. The CRF surveys areas that are under-represented in germplasm collections and collects mainly seed-multiplied crops of landraces at risk of erosion and wild species of current or potential use. The collection activities began in 1974, and since 1986 multi-crop expeditions have been carried out in which mostly local varieties of plant species for horticultural use, legumes and winter cereals have been obtained. In recent years, the effort has focused on collecting wild species that are relatives of the main crops (CWR). These materials are interesting as gene donors to be used for the selection on new material that meet the requirements of agriculture in the scenario of climate change. The latest advances available in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are used in all collection work.

In addition to the plant material, ethnobotanical information associated with each entry and the environments in which it is developed is recorded

National and International Coordination

The CRF coordinates and provides technical advice to the institutions of the Network of Collections of the National Program of Plant Genetic Resources. The advice could be related with aspects of conservation and use of plant germplasm, such as conservation technologies, documentation management, and participation in the projects of plant genetic resources of the National Plan for R&D and Innovation, and legal framework for access to preserved materials, among others. It also participates in the National Program Commission and collaborates with Spanish government and non-government institutions involved in biodiversity conservation.

The CRF participates in different working groups in the European Cooperative Program for Plant Genetic Resources (ECPGR) and in technical committees of the International Seed Testing Association (ISTA) representing Spanish institutions. CRF collaborates with the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture (MAPA) in the preparation of the Third World Report promoted by the Commission on Plant Genetic Resources of the FAO especially in the sections related to ex situ conservation.

Miembros

Coordinador de Grupo

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