Gene Banking for Ex Situ Conservation of Plant Genetic Resources

Abstract

Seed storage is one of the most widespread and valuable ex situ approaches to conservation. Extensive expertise has been developed in this fi eld by agencies and institutions involved with plant genetic resources over the past 30 years. Seed banking has considerable advantages over other methods of ex situ conservation such as ease of storage, economy of space, relatively low labour demands and, consequently, the capacity to maintain large samples at an economically viable cost. Depending on the species, seeds are dried to suitably low moisture content according to an appropriate protocol. Typically this will be less than 5 %. The seeds then are stored at −18 °C or below. Because seed DNA degrades with time, the seeds need to be periodically replanted and fresh seeds collected for another round of long-term storage. There are about six million accessions, or samples of a particular population, stored as seeds in about 1,300 gene banks throughout the world as of 2006. The procedure for seed storage along with the latest development on gene banking is discussed in this chapter.

Conservation of biodiversity in the genomics era

“…Whether using traditional conservation genetics or cutting-edge genomic engineering, any action taken—or not taken—comes with practical, legal, and ethical issues that need to be discussed with researchers, managers, and the public [ 103 , 105 , 108 ]. With emerging technologies in mind, seed banks and frozen zoos can ensure that existing genetic variation is preserved [ 109 , 110 ]. These archives are not intended to replace traditional conservation measures, but rather they should act as insurance policies.…”

Museum and Herbarium Collections for Biodiversity Research in Angola

“…These seed collections are fundamental to the preservation of plant species, by maintaining live and viable seeds for future use. There are more than 1300 seed banks worldwide (Rajasekharan 2015), both for crop or wild species. These include the Global Seed Vault, in Svalbard, Norway, which holds crop seeds for more than 5000 plant species, and the Millenium Seed Bank, at Kew and Wakehurst Place, United Kingdom, which holds seeds for 10% of the world wild species.…”

Enhancement of maize seed viability after cold storage and induced senescence by priming with synthetic cytokinins

“…One of the most widespread and valuable ex situ methods of conservation is seed storage. Seed banking has considerable advantages over other storing methods such as ease of storage, economy of space, relatively low labour demand, and consequently, the capacity to maintain large samples at an economically viable cost (Rajasekharan, 2015). One of the main purposes of germplasm exploration and collection is to reduce the risk of genetic erosion of important genes and genetic stocks as well as to utilise the useful genes in crop breeding, to increase cultivars' stability and thus reduce the risk of yield loss (Gollin, 2020;Singh et al, 2021).…”