Transcript Slide 1

The National Plant Germplasm
System: Status and Prospects
Peter Bretting
USDA/ARS Office of National Programs
The USDA/ARS National Plant Germplasm System
(NPGS)
• One of the largest national
genebank systems.
• More than 510,000
samples of more than
13,400 plant species.
• Large collections of the
major staple crops
important to U. S. and
world agriculture.
• Large holdings of crops
without major collections
at international agricultural
research centers, e.g.,
cotton, soybean, various
horticultural and
“specialty” crops.
• Germplasm Resources
Information Network
(GRIN): an international
standard.
USDA National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS)
Plant Genetic Resource Management in Genebanks
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•
•
•
Acquisition
Maintenance
Regeneration
Documentation and
Data Management
• Distribution
• Characterization
• Evaluation
• Enhancement
GRIN-Global
• GRIN = Germplasm Resources Information Network.
http://www.ars-grin.gov/ The genebank information
management system for the NPGS, and for Canada’s genebank
system (GRIN-Canada).
• The Global Crop Diversity Trust asked ARS and Bioversity
International (an International Agricultural Research Center) to
enhance and expand GRIN to address global germplasm
information management needs.
• In 2008, the Trust awarded ARS a 3-year, $1.4 million grant to
develop GRIN-Global; ARS is devoting $900K in-kind support to
the project.
• The project is now about ½ through its funding period, with
promising progress achieved.
GRIN-Global
• Based on GRIN, but can be implemented in both a
system-wide and “stand-alone” local management
mode
• Supports multiple users via a “user-friendly” interface
• Maintains linkages with other databases and
interoperates with existing systems
• Advanced querying, custom and third-party
applications
Three Tier Architecture
Presentation
Tier
(Windows
Desktop Client)
Presentation
Tier
(Web Browser)
Business Tier
(Web Service)
Data Tier
(MySQL,
Oracle, SQL
Server)
GRIN-Global
• On-line ordering/request capability
• Database-flexible, free of recurrent licensing
costs, with interface and database schema
source code open and available without
restriction to further development
• Will become the global standard plant
genebank information management system
Future Prospects
Some (but not all!) Key Challenges for the NPGS
• Managing and expanding NPGS operational
capacity and infrastructure
• Fulfilling the demand for additional
characterizations/evaluations
• Acquiring and conserving germplasm of wild crop
relatives
• Managing genetic/genomic seed stocks
• Conserving germplasm of crop-associated microbes
Likely Trends for Crop Genetic Resources and their
Management
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Static budgets?
Increasing costs for managing PGR
Larger PGR collections
Increasing demand for PGR
Trends in demand for NPGS germplasm and information
vs. NPGS budget
NPGS Web Page Access
Germplasm
Distributions
2,500,000
200000
2,000,000
180000
160000
1,500,000
1,000,000
NPGS Budget
45,000,000
40,000,000
35,000,000
140000
30,000,000
120000
25,000,000
100000
20,000,000
80000
15,000,000
60000
2008
2007
2006
2005
0
2004
0
2003
5,000,000
2002
20000
2001
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
0
10,000,000
2000
40000
1999
500,000
Result?: mismatch between expanding demand for PGR and
static NPGS capacity to manage it
Priorities for Genetic Resource
Management in Genebanks
Acquisition
Maintenance
Regeneration
Documentation
and Data
Management
• Distribution
•
•
•
•
• Characterization
• Evaluation
• Enhancement