Mission:
The mission of the Plant Genetic Resources Conservation Unit is to preserve plant genetic resources for present and future researchers and educators. The Unit acquires, characterizes, conserves, evaluates, documents, and distributes genetic resources of agronomic and horticultural crops including sorghum, peanut, vegetables, subtropical and tropical legumes, warm-season grasses, cowpeas, annual clovers, new crops, other crops, and their wild relatives. The objectives of this project are to expand the genetic diversity and associated information of crop and wild relative species in the collection, conserve and regenerate genetic resources efficiently and effectively, distribute pathogen-tested samples and associated information to researchers worldwide, and characterize and evaluate plant genetic resources for molecular markers, morphological descriptors, and other key traits including biochemical content and product quality.