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.
