Farmers have long relied on genetic diversity to breed new crops, but in the early 1900s scientists began to study the importance of plant genetic diversity for agriculture. Scientists realized that seed crops could be systematically bred with their wild relatives to incorporate specific genetic traits or to produce hybrids for more productive crop yields. The spread of hybrids led to less genetically diversity than normal plant populations, however, and by 1967, plant scientists led an international movement for conservation of plant genetic resources through the United Nations's Food and Agricultural Organization, and later through the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research, both of which are headquartered in Europe. To conserve plant genetic resources, researchers must collect and store plant germplasm-the genetic material required to propagate a plant-usually in the form of a seed.
Details
- Seed Collection and Plant Genetic Diversity, 1900-1979
- Baranski, Marci (Author)
- Drago, Mary (Editor)
- Arizona State University. School of Life Sciences. Center for Biology and Society. Embryo Project Encyclopedia. (Publisher)
- Arizona Board of Regents (Publisher)
- Context
- Germplasm resources, Plant
- Germplasm resources, Plant--Storage
- Agrobiodiversity
- Crops
- biodiversity
- Biodiversity conservation
- Germplasm resources, Plant--Storage--In vitro
- Plant breeding
- Seeds
- Organizations
- seed bank
- Seeds--Harvesting
- International Board for Plant Genetic Resources
- National Germplasm Resources Laboratory (U.S.)
- United States. Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction
- Bailey, L. H. (Liberty Hyde), 1858-1954
- Meyer, Frank Nicholas
- Vavilov, N. I. (Nikolaĭ Ivanovich), 1887-1943
- Harlan, Jack R. (Jack Rodney)
- Bennett, Erna, 1925-2012
- Hawkes, J. G. (John Gregory), 1915-2007
- Frankel, O. H. (Otto Herzberg), 1900-1998
- Rockefeller Foundation
- National Seed Storage Laboratory (U.S.)
- Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Crop Ecology and Genetic Resources Unit
- Pichel, R. J.
- plant genetic resources
- plant collection