Management of Germplasm Collections and Enhancing Their Use by Mini Core and Molecular Approaches

Abstract

Genetic resources provide basic material for selection and improvement through breeding to ensure food security needs of the world’s rapidly raising population. Conservation and utilization of plant genetic resources are important components of ex situ collections. The establishment of large, germplasm collections at ICRISAT genebank, Patancheru, India, was based on donations from existing collections. This was augmented by targeted germplasm collection missions. Majority of them are orthodox seed producing accessions. The conserved germplasm accessions have been characterized for important morpho-agronomic characters and germplasm seed samples are distributed to bonafide researchers for utilization in crop improvement programs all over the world. Exiguous use of germplasm has been observed in breeding programs, mainly due to lack of information on economic traits. Core collections and mini core collections have been developed to enhance use of germplasm in breeding programs globally. The core and mini core collections were evaluated to identify genetically diverse trait specific germplasm for resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses and for agronomic traits for use in breeding programs to develop broad based cultivars. Molecular characterization of composite sets of germplasm, that include core or mini core collections, have helped in understanding genetic diversity and population structures in each species. Genotype based reference sets of genetically diverse 300 accessions have been established. Seeds of mini core collection and reference sets are available for use by the global research community.