successful pollination and isolation from outcrossing. Status of Woody Landscape Plant Genetic Resources Available for Reducing Genetic Vulnerabilities No single organization has the resources to acquire and manage the woody landscape plant genetic
USDA's National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS) maintains the world's largest living collection of plant genetic resources. The NPGS is tasked with acquiring, preserving, characterizing, and distributing the over 450,000 accessions. Major components
Wild plant genetic resources within genebanks provide researchers with access to valuable genotypic and phenotypic diversity. In particular, crop wild relatives are emerging as very important genetic resources that provide breeders and geneticists
Plants provide humans with food, fiber, feed, ornamentals, industrial products, medicine, shelter, and fuel. As vegetation, they maintain global environmental integrity and the carrying capacity for all life. From an anthropocentric perspective, plants serve as genetic resources (PGR) for sustaining the growing human population. Research on PGR can provide basic knowledge for crop improvement or environmental management that enables renewable, sustainable production of the preceding necessities. PGR also provide the raw material for increasing yield and end product's quality, while requiring fewer inputs (water, nutrients, agrichemicals, etc.). The staples of life—30 or so major grain, oilseed, fiber, and timber species—comprise the “thin green line” vital to human survival, either directly, or through trade and income generation. Many crop genebanks worldwide focus on conserving germplasm of these staples as a shield against genetic vulnerability that may endanger economies and humanity on an international scale. Fewer genebanks and crop improvement programs conserve and develop “minor crops,” so called because of their lesser economic value or restricted cultivation globally. Yet, these minor crops, many categorized as horticultural, may be key to human carrying capacity—especially in geographically or economically marginal zones. The USDA/ARS National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS) contains a great number and diversity of minor crop germplasm. The NPGS, other genebanks, and minor crop breeding programs scattered throughout the world, help safeguard human global carrying capacity by providing the raw genetic material and genetic improvement infrastructure requisite for producing superior minor crops. The latter may represent the best hope for developing new varieties and crops, new crop rotations, and new renewable products that in the future may enhance producer profitability or even ensure producer and consumer survival.
1 Department of Extension Specialists, Rutgers Cooperative Extension, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8520. Contact: Ravza F. Mavlyanova (Research Director), Uzbek Research Institute of Plant Industry
Shennongjia mountain region is famous for its various kinds of species. Through one year's deep-going expedition in the area, lots of valuable plant species were collected, among them many are very useful and had not been used in landscape. Such as Arisaema lobatum var. variegatum nv. LuDiFei, Cremastra appendiculata var. fulva LuDiFei, Stylophorum lasiocarpum (Oliv.) Fedde, Sedum filipes Hems., Iris wilsonii C. H. Wright, Amaranthus caudatus L., Cotoneaster dammeri Schneid, Meconopsis quintupineria Regel., Lysimachia paridiformis Franch., Dysoma versipellis (Hance) M. Cheng, Adiantum pedatum L. and so on. Some genera are quite rich in this region, especially in Rosa, Sorbus, Cotoneaster, Lonicera, Impatiens, Aconitum, Gentiana, Adiantum etc. All these are marvelous material for direct appliance in garden and for breeding. There are many rare plants in the area, large communities of Davidia involucrata Baillon and Chimonanthus praecox (L.) Link were found during the expedition, and what interesting more is that various natural variations do exist in the communities. Detail description and evaluation were given to the important species, and some suggestions of protection and utilization were offered in the paper.
Indiscriminate growth can lead to germplasm collections that are too large to maintain, too large to use, or both. Curators' budgets do not often increase with collection size, so conservation and utilization activities are hindered. Maintenance of genetic integrity in large collections is practically impossible. Evaluation is restricted to easily-observed traits, potentially limiting utilization. One strategy to improve management of large collections is the core collection concept, proposed by O.H. Frankel in 1984 and subsequently expounded by A.H.D. Brown. It establishes one subset of accessions, the core, selected to represent “with a minimum of repetitiveness, the genetic diversity of a crop species and its relatives”. The other subset, the reserve, includes all accessions not in the core. Both subsets are conserved according to the highest standards feasible, but the core receives priority for characterization and evaluation to facilitate use and provide subsequent directed access to the entire collection. Use and abuse of the core concept will be discussed, including: definition of terms, genetic and statistical assumptions, and practical implementation.
recognized ( Zhao et al., 2010 ). This workshop on the “Horticultural Value of Wild Plant Genetic Resources” was held at the 2010 American Society for Horticultural Science Annual Conference in Palm Desert, CA, and was organized by the Genetics and Germplasm
were the first to document the medicinal value of plants. Until recently, human attitudes toward plant collection have not changed appreciably from the archaic concept of “take whatever you want.” The concept of plant genetic resources was originally
particularly important. The constructed core germplasm resources of different plants generally accounted for 5% to 40% of the original germplasm ( Escribano et al. 2008 ; Wang et al. 2007 ). Wang et al. (2016) analyzed the genetic diversity of 180 Ginkgo