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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Pullman, Washington » Plant Germplasm Introduction and Testing Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #231634
Title: Chapter 6. Genetic Resources: Collection, Characterization, Conservation and Documentation

Author
item Furman, Bonnie
item Coyne, Clarice - Clare
item REDDEN, B - AU TEMPERATE FIELD CROPS
item SHARMA, S - INDIA INTL BR PLNT GNETS
item VISHNYAKOVA, M - LEGUMINOUS CROPS RUSSIA

Submitted to: Book Chapter
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/9/2008
Publication Date: 8/22/2009
Citation: Furman, B.J., Coyne, C.J., Redden, B., Sharma, S.K., Vishnyakova, M. 2009. Chapter 6. Genetic Resources: Collection, Characterization, Conservation and Documentation. pages 64-75. In: The Lentil: Botany, Production and Uses, Erskine, W., Muehlbauer, F.J., Sarker, A. and Sharma, B. (eds.). CAB International, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. Book Chapter.

Interpretive Summary: Conservation of Lens germplasm is almost entirely ex situ as seed, from wild and domestic annuals and also the wild perennials. The International Center for Agriculture in Dry Areas has the global mandate for research on lentil improvement, and thus houses the world collection of Lens, which includes around 10,800 accessions. The ICARDA lentil genetic resources collection includes 8860 accessions of cultivated lentil from 70 different countries. All members of Lens are self-pollinating diploids. The other major collections worldwide include those at the Australian Temperate Field Crops Collection in the Department of Primary Industries, Victoria, Australia accessions, Pullman USDA Agricultural Research Service with 2797 accessions, N.I. Vavilov All-Russian Research Institute of Plant Industry 2396 accessions, and the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, India with 2212 accessions. In addition, many countries maintain working collections associated with their national breeding programs. Such collections are conserved for short- to medium-term utility, and thus storage conditions may not be as stringent for maintenance of viability as in the major collections. The goals of maintaining germplasm collections include preservation of genetic diversity of the species as well as providing information necessary for their utilization. Gene banks aim to conserve the original landrace diversity for both current and for unforeseen future needs in breeding as well as surveying and enhancement of germplasm diversity for key traits and identification of novel genes in wild relatives. Two important new developments in molecular genetics are its applicability to gene banks. One is the use of molecular markers for DNA ‘fingerprint’ characterization of individual accessions and the other is the capacity of allele mining for various traits using association genetics and across species with comparative genomics.

Technical Abstract: Conservation of Lens germplasm is almost entirely ex situ as seed, from wild and domestic annuals and also the wild perennials. ICARDA has the global mandate for research on lentil improvement and thus houses the world collection of Lens of 10,800 accessions and other major collections include those at the Australian Temperate Field Crops Collection in the Department of Primary Industries, Victoria, Australia, USDA Agricultural Research Service Pullman, WA, USA, N.I. Vavilov All-Russian Research Institute of Plant Industry, and the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, India. ICARDA was responsible for creating a ‘composite’ core collection for lentil as part of a large-scale program of the CGIAR Generation Challenge. The USDA ARS lentil selected a core of 234 accessions based on country of origin and recently extended (384 accessions) to add mapping population parents, cultivars and wild accessions, and a subset of pure lines was created. This pure line subset will be distributed to scientists interested in Linkage Disequilibrium mapping in lentil. The International Lentil Information System (ATFCC ILIS) evaluation database for lentil germplasm, which combines databases of ICARDA, USDA and ATFCC, enabling a more comprehensive search of the combined genetic resources over large collections for multiple trait expressions. Two important new developments in molecular genetics are its applicability to lentil germplasm collections. In progress, are the use of molecular markers for DNA ‘fingerprint’ characterization of individual lentil accessions and the other is the capacity of allele mining for various traits using association genetics.