NE009: Conservation and Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources
Statement of Issues and Justification
The nation's plant germplasm collection is essential for the continued success of conventional and molecular approaches to crop improvement. With the advent of intellectual property rights protection (i.e., patenting, trade secrets) of living organisms, germplasm collections in the public domain have become particularly valuable to research scientists. NE-009 is hosted at the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva, NY, and is a component of four plant introduction stations (the others are in Ames IA, Griffin, GA, and Pullman, WA) that make up a national network of public domain collections called the National Plant Germplasm System. NE-009 has the specific mandate to collect, preserve and provide upon request apple, grape, tart cherry, tomato, onion, vegetable Brassica (e.g., cauliflower, cabbage, broccoli, etc.), winter squash, and a few other and approximately 210 other species of plants considered valuable as ornamental, medicinal and food crops. Similar Multi-state Research Projects are operational in the other regions (S-009; W-006; and NC-007). It is through these collections that valuable genetic materials will be preserved, new genetic traits will be identified, improved cultivars will be created, and new agricultural products will be produced.
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