Overview
Conserving the world’s plant genetic resources (PGR) is critical for ensuring global food security. The genetic diversity contained in those resources will allow plant breeders to improve nutritional quality and to combat future crop disease epidemics, insect infestations, and increased stress due to climate change.
Sustaining the network of genebanks that conserve PGR requires knowledgeable staff with skills in acquiring, maintaining, regenerating, evaluating, documenting, and distributing PGR accessions (Byrne et al., 2018). This site, dubbed GRIN-U, is aimed at helping genebank staff gain and enhance their skills in these areas. Information will also be provided to guide plant breeders and geneticists in uncovering gene functions and incorporating useful genes into new varieties.
This program to develop PGR training materials had its genesis at a workshop in Fort Collins, CO in 2018. Attendees included university faculty, USDA scientists, and representatives from the genebanks of Canada and Mexico, the private sector, and NGO’s. They recommended development of a multi-faceted program that included formal university courses and an online resource library of learning materials (Volk et al., 2019a). A follow-up online survey identified the subject areas that specific groups of users considered most important for training purposes (Volk et al., 2019b).
In 2020, the Higher Education Challenge Grant Program of USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded a 3-year grant to scientists and educators from Colorado State University, Iowa State University, USDA-ARS, and a private contractor. Among the project’s objectives was development of this repository to provide centralized access to a variety of PGR training materials and links to other publicly available sources of PGR information.
References
Byrne, P.E., G.M. Volk, C. Gardner, M.A. Gore, P. W. Simon, and S. Smith. 2018. Sustaining the future of plant breeding: The critical role of the USDA-ARS National Plant Germplasm System. Crop Science 58:451–468. DOI: 10.2135/cropsci2017.05.0303
Volk, G.M., D. Namuth-Covert, and P.F. Byrne. 2019a. Training in plant genetic resources management: A way forward. Crop Science 59:853-857. DOI: 10.2135/cropsci2018.11.0689
Volk, G.M., P.K. Bretting, and P.F. Byrne. 2019b. Survey identifies essential plant genetic resources training program components. Crop Sci. 59:2308–2316. DOI: 10.2135/cropsci2019.05.0324
Funding
GRIN-U is supported in part by grant 2020-70003-30930 from the USDA-NIFA Higher Education Challenge Grant Program, administered by Colorado State University. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the USDA-NIFA.