Abstract
Seed storage is one of the most widespread and valuable ex situ approaches to conservation. Extensive expertise has been developed in this field by agencies and institutions involved with plant genetic resources over the past 30 years. Seed banking has considerable advantages over other methods of ex situ conservation such as ease of storage, economy of space, relatively low labour demands and, consequently, the capacity to maintain large samples at an economically viable cost. Depending on the species, seeds are dried to suitably low moisture content according to an appropriate protocol. Typically this will be less than 5 %. The seeds then are stored at −18 °C or below. Because seed DNA degrades with time, the seeds need to be periodically replanted and fresh seeds collected for another round of long-term storage. There are about six million accessions, or samples of a particular population, stored as seeds in about 1,300 gene banks throughout the world as of 2006. The procedure for seed storage along with the latest development on gene banking is discussed in this chapter.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Alexander MP, Ganeshan S (1993) Pollen storage. In: Chadha KL, Pareek OP (eds). Advances in horticulture, vol I. Fruit crops part-I. Malhotra Publishing House, New Delhi 110 064. pp 481–496
Barnabas B, Kovacs G (1997) Storage of pollen. In: Shivanna KR, Sawney VK (eds) Pollen biotechnology for crop production and improvement. Cambridge Univ Press, Cambridge, pp 293–314
Berthoud J (1997) Strategies for conservation of genetic resources in relation with their utilization. Euphytica 96:1–12
Crop gene bank knowledge base. http://cropgenebank.sgrp.cgiar.org/
Cromarty AS, Ellis RH, Roberts EH (1985) The design of seed storage facilities for genetic conservation. IBPGR, Rome, Italy
Damania AB (2008) History, achievements, and current status of genetic resources conservation. Prev Publ Agron J 100:9–21
Evenson RE, Gollin P, Santaniello V (eds) (1998) Agricultural values of plant genetic resources. CABI Publishing, Wallingford
FAO/IPGRI (1994) Gene bank standards. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations/International Plant Genetic Resources Institute, Rome
FAO (1996) Report on the State of the World’s Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture prepared for the International Technical Conference on Plant Genetic Resources Leipzig, Germany, Plant Production and Protection Division FAO Via delle Terme di Caracalla 00100 Rome. 17–23 June
FAO (1998) The state of the world’s plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. FAO, Rome
FAO (2004) International plant genetic resources treaty. FAO, Rome
FAO (2014) Genebank standards for plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. Rev. ed. Rome
FAO/IPGRI (1) Genebank standards. FAO and IPGRI, Rome. Available at: ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/meeting/015/aj680e.pdf)
Ganeshan S, Rajasekharan PE (1995) Genetic conservation through pollen storage in ornamental crops. In: Chadha KL, Bhattacharjee SK (eds) Advances in horticulture vol-12-Part-I. Ornamental crops. Malhotra Publishing House, New Delhi, pp 87–108
Ganeshan SPE, Rajasekharan PE, Shashikumar S, Decruze W (2008) Cryopreservation of pollen plant cryopreservation: a practical guide. Springer, Netherlands, pp 443–464
Grout BWW, Roberts AV (1995) Storage of free pollen, pollen embryos and the zygotic embryos of seed by cryopreservation and freeze drying. In: Grout B (ed) Genetic preservation of plant cells In Vitro. Springer, Berlin, pp 63–74
Guarino L, Ramanatha Rao V, Reid R (eds) (1995) Collecting plant genetic diversity: technical guidelines. CAB International on behalf of IPGRI in association with FAO, IUCN and UNEP, Wallingford, p 748
Hanna WW, Towill LE (1995) Long-term pollen storage. In: Janick J (ed) Plant breeding reviews. Wiley, Chester, pp 179–207
Hong TD, Jenkins NE, Ellis RH, Moore D (1998) Limits to the negative logarithmic relationship between moisture-content and longevity in conidia of Metarhizium flavoviride. Ann Bot 81(5):625–630
Hoekstra FA (1995) Collecting pollen for genetic resource conservation. In: Guarino L, Ramanatha Rao V, Reid R (eds) Collecting plant genetic diversity. Technical guidelines. CAB International, Wallingford, pp 527–550
Iwanaga M (1993) Enhancing the links between germplasm conservation and use in a changing world. Int Crop Sci 1:407–413
Koo B, Pardey PG, Wright BD (2003) The economic costs of conserving genetic resources at the CGIAR centres. Agric Econ 29(2003):287–297
Linington Simon H, Hugh W, Pritchard (2001) Encyclopedia of biodiversity, vol 3. Academic, Cambridge, MA
Madisen L, Hoar DI, Holroyd CD, Crisp M, Hodes ME, Reynolds JF (1987) DNA banking: the effects of storage of blood and isolated DNA on the integrity of DNA. Am J Med Genet 27:379–390
Malik SK, Singh PB, Singh A, Verma A, Ameta N, Bisht IS (2013) Community seed banks: operation and scientific management. National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi, p 64
Rice N, Cordeiro G, Shepherd M, Bundock P, Bradbury L, Pacey-Miller T, Furtado A, Henry R (2006) DNA banks and their role in facilitating the application of genomics to plant germplasm. Plant Genet Resour 4(1):64–70
Qualset CO, Shands HL (2005) Safeguarding the future of US Agriculture: the need to conserve threatened collections of crop diversity worldwide. University of California, DANR/GRCP, Davis
Rajasekharan PE, Ravish BS, Vasantha Kumar T, Ganeshan S (2013) Pollen cryobanking for tropical plant species. In: Conservation of tropical plant species. Springer Verlag, Berlin/Heildelberg/New York, pp 65–75 6
Rao NK, Hanson J, Dulloo ME, Ghosh K, Nowell D, Larinde M (2006) Manual of seed handling in genebanks, vol 8, Handbooks for Genebanks. Bioversity International, Rome
SGRP (1996) Report of the Internationally Commissioned External Review of the CGIAR Genebank operations. IPGRI (International Plant Genetic Resources Institute), Rome
Shivanna KR (2003) Pollen biology and biotechnology. Science Publishers, Enfield, pp 204–210
Ten kate K, Laird SA (1999) The commercial use of biodiversity; access to genetic resources and benefit sharing. Earthscan, London, p 398
Tyagi RK, Agrawal A (2013) Genebank standards – revised guidelines adopted by FAO. Curr Sci 104:1600–1601
Vavilov NI (1997) Origin and geography of cultivated plants. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK
Virchow D (1999) Conservation of genetic resources cost and implications for a sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. Springer, Berlin/New York
Virchow Detlef (ed) (2003) Efficient conservation of crop genetic diversity theoretical approaches and empirical studies. Springer-Verlag, Berlin/Heidelberg/New York
Visvikis S, Schlenck A, Maurice M (1998) DNA extraction and stability for epidemiological studies. Clin Chem Lab Med 36:551–555
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer India
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rajasekharan, P.E. (2015). Gene Banking for Ex Situ Conservation of Plant Genetic Resources. In: Bahadur, B., Venkat Rajam, M., Sahijram, L., Krishnamurthy, K. (eds) Plant Biology and Biotechnology. Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2283-5_23
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2283-5_23
Publisher Name: Springer, New Delhi
Print ISBN: 978-81-322-2282-8
Online ISBN: 978-81-322-2283-5
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)