Bread Wheat Landrace Database

Background

Collaborators

Scientists

The Project

FIGS Sets

VIR, N.I. Vavilov Research Institute of Plant Industry, St. Petersburg , Russia

The Institute originated and developed from the Bureau of Applied Botany organised in 1894 under the Ministry of Agriculture and State Property of Russia. In 1917 the Bureau was transformed into the Department of Applied Botany and Plant Breeding, which was in 1922 incorporated into the network of the State Institute of Experimental Agronomy (SIEA). This Department served as a scientific foundation for establishing in 1924 the All-Union Institute of Applied Botany and New Crops (AUIAB & NC), but retained its structural autonomy within the network of SIEA. In 1930 the department of Applied Botany and Plant Breeding of SIEA and UAIAB & NC was reorganised into the All-Union Institute of Plant Industry (VIR). In 1992 this Institute received its current name, and since 1967 has been bearing the name of Academician N.I.Vavilov, a brilliant scientist and the talented director of the Institute from 1921 till 1940. The N.I. Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry is the only research institution in Russia whose activities include plant genetics resources (PGR) collection, conservation and study. This Institute, its accomplishments, and role in maintaining the global ex situ collection are well known world-wide. Its global PGR collection represents plant diversity encompassing 320,000 accessions of 155 botanical families, 2,532 species of 425 genera. For instance, the collection harbours 95,000 accessions of grain crops, over 43,000 of legumes, 52,000 of groat crops, 26,000 of industrial crops, 28,000 of fodder crops, about 10,000 of potato, and 50,000 of vegetables. VIR also maintains a herbarium of 260,000 specimens. 169 thousand accessions promising materials for breeding and donors of most important commercial traits required for breeding of new cultivars and hybrids in different regions of Russia have been deposited in the National Seed Storage Facility at the Kuban Experiment Station.

ICARDA, The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas

Genetic diversity of crop plants is a precious resource of worldwide importance. The aim of preserving these genetic resources in genebanks is to prevent the extinction of unique genotypes. These genetic resources may then be used, now and in the future, to combat constraints to agricultural production that inevitably arise over time. Thus the conservation of PGR is a crucial task of fundamental and strategic importance.

The International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) plays its role in the maintenance of agro-biodiversity through its genetic resource unit which not only maintains a genebank but also undertakes various research and capacity building activities in the Central Asian, Caucus, West Asia and North African regions (CWANA).

Established in 1977, ICARDA is one of the 15 centers strategically located all over the world and supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). With its main research station and offices based in Aleppo , Syria , ICARDA works to alleviate poverty through agricultural research and development.

The activities of the GRU can be summarized below :

• Expand and preserve ex situ collections of the genetic resources to be utilized in crop improvement programs of ICARDA and the global community.

• Germplasm characterization and preliminary evaluation for biotic and abiotic stresses and morphological and agronomic traits using international descriptors.

• Genetic diversity analysis and assessment of the potential of conserved material for crop enhancement

• Maintains special purpose collections with multiplied seed for distribution

• Develop wheat germplasm with new genes from wild relatives

• Conservation and sustainable use of dry land agrobiodiversity in pilot sites in Jordan , Lebanon , Palestinian Authority and Syria

• Strengthen capacity of national and regional genetic resources institutes

• Documentation of ICARDA plant genetic resources collections in order to manage movement and utilization of germplasm

• Provides quarantine services for seed introduced to and distributed from ICARDA

AWCC, Australian Winter Cereals Collection

The Australian Winter Cereals Collection (hosted by the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries - NSW DPI) is a component of the Australian Plant Genetic Resources Centres. The AWCC is an active genebank that maintains germplasm collections representing significant global diversity of called winter cereals. In Australia those cereals that are cultivated in the winter time are called winter cereals. These include wheat ( Triticum ), barley ( Hordeum ), oat ( Avena ), rye ( Secale ), and triticale ( X Triticosecale ) along with the various wild relatives contained in the gene pool of these species, such as species in the Aegilops and Agropyron genera.

Assembling plant genetic resources specifically for improving crop production began in Australia in the late 19 th Century. As early as 1896 William Farrer, a pioneer NSW DPI wheat breeder, had assembled over 750 different varieties of wheat from many parts of the world. Australian winter cereal breeders continued to gather and collect germplasm from around the globe during the first half of the 20 th Century. The present AWCC was established at the NSW DPI Tamworth site in 1967 as the Australian Wheat Collection (AWC). It was established by assembling the working collections held by state and university wheat breeding programs into a single, national collection that ensured appropriate standards of documentation, maintenance and regeneration were achieved. In 1984 the AWC was extended to include national barley, oat and rye collections as part of a network of plant genetic resource centres in Australia .

At the start of 2005 the AWCC was curating 35,592 Triticum , Secale and X Triticosecale accessions, 12,411 Hordeum accessions and 5,585 Avena accessions. During recent times the AWCC has, on average each year, brought 3,398 new genotypes into Australia and dispatched 8,484 seed samples domestically and internationally.