Location: National Germplasm Resources Laboratory
2023 Annual Report
Objectives
Objective 1: Support, plan, and/or conduct international and domestic plant explorations and exchanges to acquire plant genetic resources, especially of crop wild relatives and landraces, that fill key gaps in the coverage of the NPGS’s crop collections. [NP301, C2, PS2A]
Objective 2: Maintain and augment GRIN-Taxonomy, the globally accepted plant nomenclatural, classificatory, and ecogeographical reference database. Expand especially its information coverage for crop wild relatives. [NP301, C2, PS2A]
Sub-objective 2.A. Provide accurate scientific plant names in GRIN-Taxonomy, incorporating new data on classification, synonymy, geographical distributions, economic importance, and common names that reflect current literature.
Sub-objective 2.B. Continue to promote global usage of GRIN-Global taxonomic data among genetic resource managers and other agricultural workers.
Sub-objective 2.C. Expand GRIN-Global information coverage on wild relatives of crops (CWR).
Objective 3: Expand collaborations among U.S. Federal, state, and private agencies to strengthen the national capacity for complementary conservation of priority crop wild relatives, both in protected reserves and in NPGS genebanks. [NP301, C2, PS2A]
Objective 4: Manage and facilitate the international exchange (import and export) of NPGS plant genetic resources. [NP301, C2, PS2A]
Objective 5: Serve as coordinator and secretariat for the 42 Crop Germplasm Committees who collectively provide technical input for NPGS plant genetic resource management plans and priorities. [NP301, C2, PS2A]
Approach
Support a plant exploration and exchange program to acquire plant genetic resources for the National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS). Distribute proposal guidelines, provide guidance on exploration planning and execution, review proposals and arrange funding. Contact foreign governmental authorities to negotiate terms on access to genetic resources, including associated benefit sharing. Assist explorers in complying with USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) regulations for importing germplasm. Track completion of explorers’ responsibilities, including submission of reports and provision of germplasm. In cooperation with U.S. explorers, NPGS curators, and collaborating foreign scientists, identify non-monetary benefits for host countries, including projects or expenditures that increase the capacity of the country to conserve genetic resources, and provide assistance for executing the projects. Maintain and augment GRIN-Taxonomy for Plants. Monitor the latest taxonomic literature through routine searches to detect any changes to existing taxonomic classification or nomenclature for possible adoption. Document all data with references in GRIN-Global. Promote the use of GRIN-Taxonomy among genetic resources managers and customers by improving the web interface, encouraging user feedback, and maintaining the integrity of the scientific nomenclature. Develop crop wild relative classifications for crops based on thorough review of all pertinent taxonomic and phylogenetic literature, as well as similar review of the plant-genetic, plant-breeding, or other crop-science literature. Focus on specialty temperate crops and major and minor subtropical crops that have not been treated. Strengthen the national capacity in the U.S. for complementary conservation of priority crop wild relatives, working directly with representatives of the federal and state land-managing agencies to develop formal non-funded, interagency agreements to establish in situ reserves for target populations of crop wild relatives on land protected by the agencies. Maintain permits issued by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) for non-regulated nursery stock, small seed lots without a phytosanitary certificate, and herbarium specimens to facilitate importing germplasm for the NPGS. Update and make available instructional sheets on import/export and proper shipping procedures of NPGS germplasm. Maintain regular communications with Department of Homeland Security Customs and Border Protection and APHIS. Support export of NPGS germplasm to researchers and educators worldwide by facilitating the agricultural inspections and issuance of phytosanitary certificates by APHIS, and shipping the germplasm to the final destination. Coordinate the activities of the Crop Germplasm Committees (CGC) by planning and participating in the annual meetings of the CGC Chairs, maintaining documentation of the activities of CGCs (minutes, membership rosters, crop vulnerability reports, etc.), and serving as a liaison between CGCs and ARS leadership to highlight issues and concerns related to plant genetic resources.
Progress Report
This progress report for project 8042-21000-280-000D covers October 2022 to March 2023. Objective 1 entailed evaluating plant exploration proposals and facilitating their external review. Under Objective 2, progress on the Germplasm Resource Information Network (GRIN) Taxonomy page included adding 2,181 distribution, 1,451 literature, 340 common name, and 569 economic use records. Plant Exchange Office (PEO) staff added 483 new taxon records, verified 469 taxon records, and modified 5,272 existing records in the taxonomy tables. Genepool and trait data were updated for existing crops, the World Economic Plants search page was redesigned, and a search for hybrid parentage was added. Testing and refinement continued on the new online Taxonomy Editor interface, which will allow more efficient data entry and batch editing. Several activities contributed to Objective 3, which focuses on expanding collaborations to support complementary conservation of crop wild relatives. Activities included leading a workshop on the conservation of Vitis species native to North America (https://graperesearch.org/2022/12/27/saving-wild-vitis/), organizing a virtual workshop for U.S. Biosphere Regions (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cy7QwIl346Q), and completing an interactive web application (https://cropwildrelatives.scinet.usda.gov). Under Objective 4, the PEO facilitated the export of 370 public germplasm orders, containing a total of 25,965 samples of NPGS accessions. Project staff attended CGC meetings, updated CGC content on GRIN, and coordinated the annual CGC Chairs virtual meeting on March 1, 2023. This is also the final report for project 8042-21000-280-000D, which terminated March 25, 2023, and was replaced by project 8042-21000-302-000D. Significant accomplishments were made over the five-year duration. Under Objective 1, 32 plant explorations were approved and completed. Explorations were conducted in the United States, Georgia, Vietnam, and Italy, resulting in more than 35 accessions being added to the NPGS. The accessions comprise a wide range of taxa representing 10 CGCs. There were considerably fewer explorations than typical for a five-year period because of the pandemic. For Objective 2, The GRIN Taxonomy public website was completely updated, and most data are now searchable and exportable, providing greater stakeholder access and reducing requests for custom queries. Over the past five years, PEO staff modified 189,210 existing records, and added 52,169 distribution, 45,301 literature, 3,746 common name, and 8,887 economic use records. Crop wild relative records and associated trait data were completely restructured, and their corresponding webpages were reformatted to easily export trait and genepool data. By year five, 390 major and minor crops had been classified with their crop wild relatives, associated trait data, and links to accessions. Searches for nodulation and regulation data that were available before the GRIN-Global website release were restored. Noxious weed and rarity records were moved into regulatory tables and augmented with state quarantine and Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) import data. An online taxonomy editor, under development since year two, was in testing phase at the completion of the project. Objective 3, which focuses on complementary conservation of crop wild relatives, yielded three significant accomplishments: 1) A long-standing collaboration for the complementary conservation of cranberry led to a publication on the genetic diversity of populations of two species located in National Forests in the U.S., which was used to guide decisions for designating in-situ conservation sites; 2) A two-volume book on North American Crop Wild Relatives was published that was co-edited by PEO staff; and 3) A collaboration with PEO staff and the U.S. Forest Service, the University of Arizona, and the Borderlands Restoration Network surveyed priority crop wild relatives in the Wild Chile Botanical Area of the Coronado National Forest, Arizona, culminating in germplasm being accessioned into the NPGS and voucher specimens deposited in the U.S. National Arboretum Herbarium. Objective 4 facilitated the import and export of germplasm for the NPGS. The time needed to complete inspections and shipments during the 2019-2022 pandemic period was significantly reduced during by the end of the project. For shipments received through the National Plant Germplasm Quarantine Center, 83% were processed in 5-10 working days. For outgoing shipments, 92% were processed in 5-15 working days. During the five-year period, PEO facilitated the export of 2,852 public germplasm orders, which contained 202,558 samples of NPGS accessions, to individuals in 96 countries. In addition, PEO facilitated the agricultural inspection of 16 arriving germplasm shipments containing accessions from 14 foreign countries for NPGS researchers and curators. Objective 5 facilitated recurring operations of the Crop Germplasm Committees (CGCs) by hosting annual virtual meetings of CGC Chairs, providing update reports on NGRL activities to CGC meetings (typically about 15-20 per year), and updating CGC content on GRIN. A new coffee and cacao CGC was formed. The layout of the public CGC page on GRIN was revised to improve the navigation and a tool was developed to allow NGRL staff to update CGC content without assistance from IT specialist colleagues.
Accomplishments
1. GRIN Taxonomy remains an internationally recognized, trusted resource for plant taxonomy of agricultural plants. Clear communication regarding plant names is critical for agricultural stakeholders, including farmers, industry, and regulators. However, plant names frequently change to reflect advances in scientific understanding of relationships, alterations of the international rules governing correct names, and discovery of earlier literature that assigned scientific names. Stakeholders rely on GRIN Taxonomy, which is managed by an ARS scientist in Beltsville, Maryland, to provide reliable, accurate information on names of economically important plants. During the reporting period, 27,460 new plant names were added to GRIN Taxonomy, reflecting requests from germplasm curators, the International Seed Testing Association, the National Agricultural Library, the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants, Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, and the Community Variety Plant Office. Crop wild relative, economic usage, and noxious and rarity data were extensively restructured with assistance from the Database Management Unit, facilitating the complete overhaul of all the GRIN Taxonomy webpages, several of which had been unavailable for multiple years. Missing data have been targeted for completion, with a focus on geographic distributions to allow more accurate results for country-based searches. Additionally, data on wild relatives for 390 major and minor crops are available, classifying more than 6,000 primary, secondary, tertiary, and graft-stock genetic relatives for these crops, along with more than 4,100 reported agronomically important traits, which include drought, heat, and disease tolerance. These data can be searched in multiple ways through the GRIN-Global public website. By providing accurate data on economically important plants, GRIN Taxonomy assists breeders, regulators, researchers, and industry in communicating effectively as they identify and manage their plant resources.
