Germplasm Conservation (Gene Bank)

Tissue culture methods offer the opportunity for in vitro collecting, rapid multiplication and distribution of important elite, or rare plants that are threatened with extinction. The two major in vitro  storage strategies are slow growth and cryo-preservation. Since the first results of seibert (1976), who was able to initiate shoots from carnation shoot apices frozen to -196'c. This technique is now successful for many of horticultural species. Dereuddre et al. (1991) have provided a very simple technology to freeze encapsulated meristems in dried alginate beads. It works for pear, strawberry, eucalyptus, potato. The international Potato center (CIP) in Lima, Peru has a large word potato collection. Germplasm of sweet potato and cassava is at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan, Nigeria.

The movement of germplasm involves the risks of accidentially introducing plant quarantine pests along with the host plant material. To limit these risks, the plant material should be transferred from one country to another as in vitro cultures through a transit centre, where it should be indexed. For bananas, in the framework of INIBAP, the transit centre is the catholic university of Leuven in Belgium where a very large in vitro germplasm exists. The germplasm conservation (vitro preservation) of asexually propagated horticultural crops for storage under conditions closer to ambient temperature to suit the local conditions are important. An in vitro storage slow growth and cryopreservation have been standardized for many horticultural crops. Freezing of encapsulated meristems is possible in pears, strawberry and potato. For the movement of germplasm, in-vitro technique is very handy. The molecular taxonomy (like RAPD and RFLP) in genomic analysis and classification and development of molecular tools for disease indexing in in vitro propagated materials, in checking clonal fidelity, germplasm classification and identification of markers linked are important priority areas in this field. Molecular characterization of indigenous germplasm, application of DNA markers for identification of cultivars and molecular linkage maps for developing new varieties are important aspects of biotechnological studies.