Plant Genebanks: Present Situation and Proposals for Their Improvement. the Case of the Spanish Network

Abstract

Genebanks were created by the middle of the twentieth century to preserve cultivated biodiversity when landraces began to be substituted by modern varieties. This move was generally accepted as a necessary step to safeguard the future. After about 75 years of collecting and maintaining genetic resources, the increasing ability of biotechnology to create new variability brings the roles of genebanks in the present and near future into question. As a continuation of several workshops that started in 2014, staff of some representative genebanks have met to discuss how the Spanish Plant Genetic Resources Network can be improved, identifying the following major shortcomings: lack of efficient coordination in the distribution of species among genebanks; too many genebanks; existence of detected and undetected duplicates; insufficient rate of regeneration; insufficient phenotyping, genotyping, and epiphenotyping; unsatisfactory rate of use by end users; and, insufficient funding. As a considerable increase in public funding is unlikely, we propose some strategies to increase the efficiency of the system. The most urgent tasks are to strengthen the rationalization of the network by establishing a clear hierarchy and functions, to improve the information in the base collection by deep characterization including not only phenotypes but also uses and utilities, to progressively replace the active collections with focused core collections constructed to meet users' needs, to optimize regeneration protocols, to limit new collecting expeditions of Spanish crop wild relatives to those growing in threatened habitats, and to develop user-friendly platforms to access germplasm documentation, including a unified system of descriptors and classification categories. Current advances in biotechnology, and especially those in gene editing will have without doubt an impact on the role of genebanks. However, the high number of genes and gene combinations created by evolution they hold cannot be produced by these techniques at present. So, these reservoirs of variability will continue to be indispensable for the near-medium future while the function of all the genes is unveiled. In turn, biotechnologies and gene editing will allow us to take advantage of the information held in genebanks in a more efficient and fast way, contributing to a better rationalization and functioning.

A Land Evaluation Framework for Agricultural Diversification

“…Also, coordinates are documented without adequate metadata (in the case of numerical coordinates, that means latitudes and longitudes are recorded without additional decimal points). Also, both of these databases do not usually record details of plant and environmental interactions such as the type of cropping system from which the presence/accessions were observed/acquired [38].…”

“…Furthermore, within major crop groups, the climate-only indices had the highest variability, particularly for the indices that used aggregated seasonal rain; this is evident in the bottom half of the group boxplots (Figure 3). The main reason for this could be that information about the cropping systems are not exhaustively documented by the gene banks [38], and therefore, distinguishing between rainfed, irrigated, and other management practices for all locations is not possible.…”

Interspecific Hybridization for Brassica Crop Improvement

“…costata). Brassica rapa includes the turnips, turnip greens, and turnip tops; and B. napus appears only in the form known as "nabicol" or leaf rape [194]. The United Kingdom Vegetable Genebank (UKVGB) managed by the University of Warwick conserves approximately 14,000 accessions of crops including Brassica types [195].…”

“…In the era of fast growing technologies such as genome editing, sequencing and biotechnology tools, there is scope to improve the efficient utilization of information and resources provided by gene banks. Future gene banks should also aim to conserve DNA as well as products of genome editing and transgenic approaches, alongside genomic sequence information for plant accessions [194].…”

Improving the Conservation and Use of Traditional Germplasm through Breeding for Local Adaptation: The Case of the Castellfollit del Boix Common Bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) Landrace

“…Moreover, we conducted several assays to optimize the approach to cultivating the landrace (to determine the minimum soil depth required, the type of mechanization, best method of weed control, etc. ); in other words, we worked toward the epiphenotypical characterization of the landrace [10].…”