Plant Genetic Resource Conservation

ÖZET Baraj gölleri büyük alanları su altında bırakmaktadır. Bu su altında kalan sahalarda birçok bitki yer almaktadır. Çou zaman bu bitkilerin akarsu kenarlarında, vadi içlerinde uyum salamı yerel ekotipleri ve ırkları olumaktadır. Yerel ekotipler ve bazı durumlarda vadi içlerinde çok sınırlı bir yayılıa sahip bitki türlerinin varlıı baraj sularının altında tehlikeye girmektedir. Bu su altında kalan gen kaynaklarının en azından ortamları dıında (ex-situ) korunması gerekmektedir. Dier yandan barajlar su altında bıraktıı alanın dıında genel olarak çok geni havzalara sahiptir. Bu havzalarda su düzenleme ve erozyon kontrolünü amaçlayan çounlukla odunsu türlerle youn bitkilendirme çalımaları yapılmaktadır. Bu bitkilendirme çalımalarında baraj gölü altında kalan ve havzada yer alan yerel gen kaynaklarının kullanımına öncelik verilmelidir. Yerel bitkilerin envanteri, öncelik su altında kalan alan olmak üzere baraj inaatı tamamlanmadan önce sonlandırılmalıdır. ABSTRACT Dam reservoirs occupy great areas in which many plants occur naturally. Ecotypes and landraces of these plants adapted to certain riparian areas and watersheds are often seen. Sometimes, local ecotypes and landraces and existing endemic plants in dam reservoirs face extinction. These gene resources under the water reservoir at least need to be conserved outside their occurrence (ex situ). Dams have big watersheds outside water reservoirs. In these water catchment areas, big plantation studies especially with woody plants are carried out for water management and erosion control. In these plantation studies, local gene resources in the watershed and under the water reservoirs should be mainly preferred and used. The inventory of plants in the watershed and under the reservoirs should be completed before the water collection in dam reservoirs.

The coconut palm (Cocos nucifera L.) is a perennial fruit with great economic importance in the Brazilian Northeast and is expanding to other regions. However, this culture is susceptible to various diseases, such as “lixa grande”, “lixa pequena” and leaf blight. Although they are of great economic importance, are diseases difficult to control, especially for the high size of the plants. Through this study aimed to describe the relationship between the intensity of the complex sanding and leaf blight (CLQ) in dwarf coconut accession and evaluate the cyproconazole fungicide efficiency to control CLQ in green dwarf coconut tree under different modes (axillary and injection) dosages (0.3, 0.6 and 1.0 g a.i.) and frequency of application (bi-monthly and six-monthly). To test the control efficiency of cyproconazole front of the CLQ. Axillary application was made by the application in the axil of the leaf number 9 of the product diluted and injected by opening a hole in the stem to 20 cm from the ground with a mechanical drill and introduction of pure product in the above doses with a syringe. Was evaluated the incidence and severity in addition to the first leaf with leaf blight (PFQ). The temporal variation in the incidence and severity of disease during the study period was determined by the ratio of the values of the last evaluation (225 d) on the first (0 d). For chemical control with cyproconazole, the use of tree regression resulted in a model where a tree four terminal nodes explained 49% of the total variability of the data. This variability was explained by two factors selected for analysis, dose and mode of application, which contributed respectively with 35.5% and 13.5% of the total variability. It was found that there was a difference for all treatments in relation to control. The application modes differ, where injectable application obtained the best controls with lower levels of incidence and severity and higher levels of PFQ. Doses of 0.6 and 1.0 g a.i. were the most efficient independent of the frequency of application to the axillary and injection modes, respectively. There was no significant effect of frequency of application. In the second experiment were evaluated six dwarf coconut accessions conserved in active germplasm bank (BAG) of Embrapa-CPATC being: AAG (Dwarf Yellow-of the-Brazil-of-Gramame), AAM (Dwarf Yellow-of- Malaysia), stroke (Dwarf-Red-of-Cameroon), AVG (Dwarf-Red-of the-Brazil-of-Gramame, AVBJ (Dwarf-Green-of the-Brazil-of-Jiqui), and AVM (Dwarf-Red-of-Malaysia). the design was randomized blocks with six treatments (accessions) and five repetitions. Was carried out 11 monthly evaluations from June 2015 to May 2016. Of each disease was evaluated incidence and severity. With the evaluation of BAG accesses a graphical representation expressed 95% of the variability of the data, and of this total, 72% associated with the axis 1 and 23% to the axis 2. the intensity of CLQ damage stroke access and AVBJ presented an intermediate behavior in relation the other accesses. AVG access followed by AVM tended to greater intensity of great sandpaper and the burning of leaves. A group of AAG and AAM tended to greater intensity of small sandpaper. Regarding the environment the intensity of great sandpaper was positively influenced by the temperature and the incidence of leaf burn negatively by rainfall. The small sandpaper was influenced by the relative humidity.

The conservation of traditional medicinal knowledge opens the door towards modern aspects of herbal drug
discovery. It was started from knowledge exchange through ethnic groups by oral tradition and then in the
documented form. Herbaria conserving identified and authenticated plants for future correspondence play an
important role in this regard. In presenting review, authors have declared different auxiliary aspects of herbaria
for phytomedicinal research.

Bauhinia phoenicea is endemic to the Western Ghats of Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. It is assessed as Vulnerable as per the IUCN red list criteria using primary and secondary information on trends in EOO, AOO and sub-populations. Taxonomy of the species, distribution, variability in the number of fertile stamens, and causes of rarity are discussed. Lectotypification is also made for B. benthamii, a taxonomic synonym of B. phoenicea.

The results of the evaluation of the genetic resources of sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam) are presented from the study of herbarium material and bibliographic sources taking into account the criterion of Maxted´s taxon group according to which in Cuba is reported the presence of the following groups : Taxon group 2 - same series or section cultivation (7 species) Taxon group 3 - same subgenus Eriospermum the crop (45 species) within this group are 21 endemic species and Taxon group 4 - same genus as the crop (57 species) that fact potenciate to Cuba as an important center of diversity for Ipomoea batatas in Latin America and the Caribbean. A brief description of the treated species including distribution, phenology, ethnobotanical data and herbarium material consulted is provided. A brief description of the treated species including distribution, phenology, ethnobotanical data and herbarium material consulted is provided.

Sinai Primrose (Primula boveana) is an endangered paleo-endemic to South Sinai, Egypt, where it is restricted to high-elevation year-round springs in red granitic rocks. It is subjected to a number of threats causing the populations to decline in number and size. We measured genetic diversity and structure of its populations using allozymes and examined the mating system using progeny arrays. We examined the sequence-level variation in PbSLL1 and PbSLL2 and compared it with P. vulgaris. Results showed that P. boveana maintains a low to moderate level of genetic diversity with most of genetic diversity (62%) were found within the populations. Appreciable genetic differentiation among populations was revealed which strengthens the hypothesis of historic isolation. A remarkable matching was detected between genetic and spatial distances. The results of mating system analysis indicated that P. boveana is largely outcrossing with single locus outcrossing rates higher than 0.83. The level of biparental inbreeding indicated that there is a very weak selfing occurring. Crosses showed that selfing does produce fertile offspring but at a high fitness cost compared to outcrossing. The sequencing of S-locus detected a single variable site in sequenced intron 1 of PbSLL2 for pin and thrum plants in the sequenced regions of 2kb of PbSLL2 and 212bp of PbSLL1. However, there was no association of this SNP to the flower polymorphism. A high divergence has been detected between P. vulgaris and P. boveana which confirmed the evolutionary variation between the two species. The conservational implications of the results have been discussed.

El presente documento da a conocer los resultados de la «Elaboración de las Bases Técnicas para el Reconocimiento Oficial de las Áreas de Manejo Especial para la Conservación de la Agrobiodiversidad AMECAs». Resultados que contienen.
* Un marco conceptual de las AMECAs como estrategia de conservación de los objetos de la agrobiodiversidad nativa y de reconocimiento de los conservacionistas.
* Las medidas de éxito de las AMECAs como una expresión que integra la dimensión ambiental, la dimensión humana, la dimensión económica y político institucional.
* Los fundamentos ambientales, sociales culturales, económicos y político institucionales que sustentan la creación de las AMECAs.
* Una estrategia de gestión apropiada teniendo presente que se trata de un régimen privado, se refiere a unidades bioculturales, donde las áreas se mueven periódicamente en función a condiciones climáticas y culturales.
* El procedimiento para el reconocimiento oficial  (Normatividad y Mecanismos) concordado con el Organismo Regulador.
* Finalmente se presenta el Caso de la Comunidad de Laria en Huancavelica, como un potencial caso piloto de AMECA

Edition: INIA, ARARIWA, CESA, Proyecto Conservación In Situ. PER 98/G33,
Publisher: PNUD Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo. IIAP Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonía Peruana,
Compilation / Editor: Marco Chevarría Lazo
DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.1.3708.3600

The germination requirements and the basis of the optimal water content before and after cryopreservation were studied for ten endangered Brazilian species of Bromeliaceae. Constant and alternating temperature regimes were used to determine the best conditions for seed germination. The relationship between seed water content and relative humidity was evaluated using water sorption isotherms at 15 °C. Seeds were cryostored at four water contents (3, 5, 7 and 9%) and three storage periods (0, 180 and 365 days), and loss in viability and vigour were estimated. Fresh seeds of all species showed maximum germination in < 30 days at temperatures between 20 and 30 °C, indicating the absence of a physical/morphological dormancy. A sigmoidal relationship between seed water content and relative humidity was observed with no apparent differences in sorption characteristics among the species. The optimum water content for cryopreservation of most of these species was c. 7%. Ultra-drying (3% seed water content) had a detrimental effect on seed viability and vigour. Our experiments suggested orthodox storage behaviour for all species of Bromeliaceae examined as they are able to survive desiccation and freezing. This study has shown the feasibility of ex situ conservation in seed cryobanks of endangered bromeliads from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest to support future reintroduction of these species in nature.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/enhanced/doi/10.1111/boj.12219/

In the centre of St.-Petersburg in St. Isaac's Square (B. Morskaya str. 42-44) two buildings constructed by architect Yefimov are situated. They house the N.I. Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry. There is a memorial board on one of these buildings with the following words carved: « Nikolai Ivanovich VAVILOV, a prominent biologist, worked here in 1921-1940». Nikolai I. Vavilov (1887-1943 is recognized as the foremost plant geographer, botanist and geneticist of contemporary times. In the early 20th century, the world did not appreciate the urgency of protecting the environment and scientists thought little about the gradual disappearance of valuable plant species. Vavilov was among the first to recognize the need for intensive plant collecting, research and preservation. He organized and took part in over 100 collecting missions in the major agricultural areas of the world. During these expeditions, Vavilov paid special attention to leguminous crops as sources of protein and as means of increasing soil fertility (Sinskaja 1991). He considered these issues to be of the highest priority in biological and agricultural sciences for developing sustainable agricultural production. Many close colleagues of Vavilov e.g. Barulina (his second wife), Govorov, Zhukovsky, Sinskaja further developed his ideas, selecting legumes as the subject of their research. Govorov, L.I. Prof. Leonid I. Govorov was the Russian agronomist and plant breeder; from 1915 worked at Moskow Breeding Station; from 1923 was the Head of the Steppe Station, and later was the first Head of the Department of Leguminous Crops at VIR. Vavilov and his colleagues revealed a number of important findings in plant biology through such research. However, this vast body of work has not been brought together in a single report.

Germplasm collections of tree crop species represent fundamental tools for conservation of diversity and key steps for its characterization and evaluation. For the olive tree, several collections were created all over the world, but only few of them have been fully characterized and molecularly identified. The olive collection of Perugia University (UNIPG), established in the years’ 60, represents one of the first attempts to gather and safeguard olive diversity, keeping together cultivars from different countries. In the present study, a set of 370 olive trees previously uncharacterized was screened with 10 standard simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and nine new EST-SSR markers, to correctly and thoroughly identify all genotypes, verify their representativeness of the entire cultivated olive variation, and validate the effectiveness of new markers in comparison to standard genotyping tools. The SSR analysis revealed the presence of 59 genotypes, corresponding to 72 well known cultivars, 13 of them resulting exclusively present in this collection. The new EST-SSRs have shown values of diversity parameters quite similar to those of best standard SSRs. When compared to hundreds of Mediterranean cultivars, the UNIPG olive accessions were splitted into the three main populations (East, Center and West Mediterranean), confirming that the collection has a good representativeness of the entire olive variability. Furthermore, Bayesian analysis, performed on the 59 genotypes of the collection by the use of both sets of markers, have demonstrated their splitting into four clusters, with a well balanced membership obtained by EST respect to standard SSRs. The new OLEST (Olea expressed sequence tags) SSR markers resulted as effective as the best standard markers. The information obtained from this study represents a high valuable tool for ex situ conservation and management of olive genetic resources, useful to build a common database from worldwide olive cultivar collections, also based on recently developed markers.

OPINIÓN TECNICA DEL INSTITUTO NACIONAL DE RECURSOS NATURALES (INRENA), DEL INSTITUTO NACIONAL DE INVESTIGACIÓN Y EXTENSIÓN AGRARIA (INIEA) DEL MINISTERIO DE AGRICULTURA Y DEL CONSEJO NACIONAL DE CIENCIA, TECNOLOGÍA E INNOVACIÓN TECNOLÓGICA DEL PERÚ (CONCYTEC) SOBRE LA CONVENIENCIA DE LA ADHESION DEL PERU AL CONVENIO UPOV- 1991 DENTRO DEL MARCO DE NEGOCIACIONES DEL TRATADO DE LIBRE COMERCIO (TLC) ENTRE EL PERU Y LOS ESTADOS UNIDOS DE NORTEAMERICA – USA.

Walnut is one of the most important nutritive nut crops and widely grown in Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan. In the present study 19 local landraces were analyzed for morphological traits to investigate genetic diversity and identify promising landraces for cultivar development. Multivariate analyses showed high variation for morphological traits and nut and kernel characteristics. Cluster analyses depicted diversity among the local land races which separated them into 2 major clusters groups, showing more association to morphological differences. PCA revealed that the 1 st four principal components (PC's) possessed Eigen value >1.0, where PC1 and PC2 contributed total variance of 41.65% and 23.42% respectively with total variance (65.05%) showing maximum factor loadings by kernel ratio, shell%, kernel yield and nut width by the first two PC's. Pearson correlation coefficient among walnut landraces revealed positively significant correlation between shell yield and nut weight(r=0.96), kernel yield and nut width(r=0.85), whereas negative correlation were observed (r =-0.89 and r =-0.76) between kernel ratio with shell yield and nut weight respectively. A wide range of diversity was observed among the local landraces from Karakoram regions and the landrace HKK and GNAG were reported as promising one with highest kernel ratio. These landraces are potential for future breeding of nut crops with distinct morphological traits.

Published in 2000 by the U.S. Government Printing Office, this book was produced by the Arizona Rare Plant Committee, a collaboration of agencies and organizations, including AZNPS.

The guide lists more than 125 species of plants that are rare in Arizona. For each species there is a description, including phenology, management responsibility, habitat, range, and notes. Beautiful drawings and color photos illustrate each species, along with a very general map. In addition, the species are listed not only by botanical name, but also by management responsibility (e.g., Coconino National Forest), and by county.

The complete text of the book can be downloaded for free, below.
The books are now out of print.

Plants are essential sources of food, medicine, shelter, fuel, feed, and forage, and provide a wide range of additional ecosystem and cultural services to humanity. In recognition of the tremendous value of useful plants and of the increasing threats to their persistence, international agreements including the Convention on Biological Diversity, the Sustainable Development Goals, and the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture have created ambitious conservation targets which must be measured through quantitative indicators so as to facilitate the development and implementation of strategies aimed at safeguarding their genetic diversity. Gaps in the current list of functioning indicators for these targets suggest that the development of effective measurements of the state of conservation of the genetic diversity within useful plants is a major challenge. Here we present a gap analysis indicator methodology that provides a pragmatic estimate of the comprehensiveness of conservation of the genetic diversity within useful wild plants, both ex situ and in situ. The methodology compares the geographic and ecological variation evident from analyses of the 'site of collection' of samples of plant taxa that are safeguarded in genebanks and other living plant repositories, as well as the variation evident in the proportion of species' ranges inhabiting protected areas, against the full range of geographic and ecological variation in their native distributions. The methodology enables a prioritization of species for immediate conservation action, and, when measured periodically, can quantify progress toward comprehensive conservation of these plants at global, regional, and national scales, including determining when that goal has been reached. Assessing almost 7000 taxa with the "Comprehensiveness of conservation of useful wild plants" indicator, we find that they are currently highly under-conserved, with less than three out of every 100 taxa assessed as sufficiently conserved or of low priority for further conservation action (overall global indicator = 2.78). Indicator results at the national and regional scales as well as by species use type varied, although virtually all countries, regions, and use categories were found to require further conservation action, particularly with regard to ex situ conservation. The results as well as input data and method code are available for indicator reporting and for conservation prior-itization setting.

The contribution of soil seed bank of a desert endemic plant species in maintaining genetic diversity has been addressed in this paper through investigating the differences in genetic diversity and structure (using AFLP markers) between plants grown from soil seed bank and standing crop plants within and among five populations of H. sinaicum growing at St. Katherine Protectorate, southern Sinai, Egypt. Standard genetic diversity measures showed that the molecular variation within and among populations was highly significantly different between standing crop and soil seed bank. While soil seed bank had lower genetic diversity than standing crop populations, pooling soil seed bank with standing crop samples resulted in higher diversity. The results revealed also that soil seed bank had lower differentiation (7 %) than among populations of the standing crop (18 %). Results of neighbor-joining, Bayesian clustering and principal coordinate analysis showed that soil seed banks had a separate gene pool different from standing crop. The study came to the conclusion that the genetic variation of the soil seed bank contributes significantly to the genetic variation of the species. This also stresses the importance of elucidating the genetic diversity and structure of the soil seed bank for any sound and long-term conservation efforts for desert species. These have been growing in small-size populations for a long time that any estimates gained only from aboveground sampling of populations may be ambiguous.

Knowledge of agro-morphological and genetic variability of germplasm diversity is a prerequisite for its use in breeding. The aim of this study was to characterize the genetic diversity of the manioc (Manihot esculenta) Active Germplasm Bank (AGB) at Embrapa Amazônia Ocidental using microsatellite markers. We evaluated 470 accessions collected along five of the main rivers of the Amazon basin: Solimões, Purus, Madeira, Negro, and Amazon. The ten SSR loci used showed high levels of genetic diversity, the polymorphism information content ranged from 0.35 to 0.84, and the mean number of alleles per locus was 11.3. Accessions from the Madeira River had a higher Shannon index (1.52), as well as the largest number of private alleles (19). Bayesian inference of genetic structure implemented in the Structure software suggested the existence of two groups of accessions without clear association with river basins. The accumulated variation in the first two axes of the principal coordinate analysis revealed low genetic divergence between these groups, while AMOVA identified

This paper deals with the lectotypification of 26 names of 14 recognised species in the genus Litsea Lam. and two replacement names are proposed for Lindera hookeri Meisn. and Tetranthera khasyana Meisn. as Litsea himalayensis R. Kr. Singh and Litsea meghalayensis R. Kr. Singh.

Coppens d'Eeckenbrugge, G., Duval, M-F. 1999. Pineapple germplasm conservation: experiences from the Martinique field collection. In: F. Engelmann (ed.): Management of field and in vitro genebanks. International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (Rome), 59-62.

This important reference book provides a comprehensive assessment of date palm genetic resources and utilization in individual date-producing countries worldwide. The book is published in two volumes; each consists of 15 chapters written by prominent scientists of each country and supported with color illustrations and tabulated data. Volume 1 addresses date-producing countries within Africa and the Americas; whereas, Volume 2 pertains to countries in Asia and Europe. This volume presents the current status and prospects of date palm cultivation in the Asian and European continents. The Asian countries included are: Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Pakistan, Oman, Yemen, Israel, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Syria, Palestine and India. Europe is represented by Spain. Topics discussed in each chapter include cultivation practices, genetic resources and conservation, plant tissue culture, cultivar identification, cultivar descriptions, date production and marketing, processing and novel products a...

This paper aims to propose an international list of descriptors forButia odorata(jelly palm), using scientific documentation methods and farmers&#39; knowledge to allow the germplasm characterization for conservation and sustainable use. It is an attempt to promote the development of new approaches to documenting crop genetic resources using a blend of these two sources of knowledge, frequently perceived as conflicting. This long-lived and useful palm is a neglected and subutilized species, and its genetic diversity and associated knowledge are under severe erosion. A list of 11 morphological descriptors is proposed based on observations, literature review and discussions with farmers who know and use the plant. These descriptors were used to characterize 303 adult jelly palms conservedin situ. Descriptive results are presented. Only five morphological characteristics were reported by farmers as important to discriminate individual plants, indicating that farmers have simpler and mo...

Coppens d'Eeckenbrugge, G., Komba, P., Ullivarri, A. 2018. Filling geographical gaps. In: Bourdeix, R., Prades, A. (eds.): A global strategy for the conservation and use of coconut genetic resources 2018-2028. Bioversity International, Montpellier, 150-152.

This paper aims to propose an international list of descriptors for Butia odorata (jelly palm), using scientific documentation methods and farmers&#39; knowledge to allow the germplasm characterization for conservation and sustainable use. It is an attempt to promote the development of new approaches to documenting crop genetic resources using a blend of these two sources of knowledge, frequently perceived as conflicting. This long-lived and useful palm is a neglected and subutilized species, and its genetic diversity and associated knowledge are under severe erosion. A list of 11 morphological descriptors is proposed based on observations, literature review and discussions with farmers who know and use the plant. These descriptors were used to characterize 303 adult jelly palms conserved in situ . Descriptive results are presented. Only five morphological characteristics were reported by farmers as important to discriminate individual plants, indicating that farmers have simpler an...

Germplasm collections of tree crop species represent fundamental tools for conservation of diversity and key steps for its characterization and evaluation. For the olive tree, several collections were created all over the world, but only few of them have been fully characterized and molecularly identified. The olive collection of Perugia University (UNIPG), established in the years&#39; 60, represents one of the first attempts to gather and safeguard olive diversity, keeping together cultivars from different countries. In the present study, a set of 370 olive trees previously uncharacterized was screened with 10 standard simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and nine new EST-SSR markers, to correctly and thoroughly identify all genotypes, verify their representativeness of the entire cultivated olive variation, and validate the effectiveness of new markers in comparison to standard genotyping tools. The SSR analysis revealed the presence of 59 genotypes, corresponding to 72 well known cult...

Cohen, Joel I. (Office of Agriculture, Agency for International Development, Washington, DC
20523-1809), Janis B. Alcorn (Biodiversity Support Program, World Wildlife Fund/U.S., 1250
24th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20037), and Christopher S. Potter (National Research Council,
Moffet Field, CA). UTILIZATION AND CONSERVATION OF GENETIC RESOURCES: INTERNATIONAL
PROJECTS FOR SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE. Economic Botany 45(2):190-199. 1991. Foreign
assistance helps developing countries to achieve economic growth through wise use of natural
resources. Conservation interventions and sustainable use of natural resources play a central role
in this development. Conservation and utilization of genetic resources have traditionally proceeded
as separate approaches. A conceptual approach to project design is presented encouraging greater
interaction between those conserving crop genetic resources and those seeking their economic
application in a sound land-use management plan. Projects illustrating this approach are being
supported by the Agency for International Development. They suggest a paradigm for research
and development allowing interdisciplinary activities targeting sustainable agriculture development.
Utilization y conservation de recursos geneticos: recursos internacionales para agriculture sustenable.
La ayuda extranjera contribuye a que los paises en desarrollo logren un crecimiento
economico a traves del uso apropriado de sus recursos naturales. La intervention en la conservation
y el uso sostenible de recursos naturales debe desempenar un papel primordial en este
desarrollo. La conservation y utilization de recursos geneticos tradicionalmente se ha considerado
como enfoques separados. Presentamos un enfoque conceptual para proyectar el diseno, estimulando
mayor interaction entre esos recursos deproductos geneticos de conservation y aquellos
que buscan su aplicacion economica en un plan bien fundamentado de administration en el uso
de la tierra. La Agenda para el Desarrollo International apoya proyectos que ilustran este sistema.
Se sugiere un paradigma para la investigation y el desarrollo permitiendo en estos proyectos
actividades interdisciplinarias que enfoquen el desarrollo de una agricultura sostenible.

This paper deals with the typification of seven species of Litsea Lamarck endemic to India: Litsea bourdillonii Gamble, L.
floribunda (Blume) Gamble, L. keralana Kostermans, L. laevigata (Nees) Gamble, L. mysorensis Gamble, L. nigrescens
Gamble, and L. travancorica Gamble.

Isachne mysorensis Sundararagh. an endangered little known dwarf grass is rediscovered from Mookambika Wildlife Sanctuary, Udupi dist., Karnataka after a lapse of about 50 years outside its type locality. A detailed description, distribution, ecology and IUCN threat status are provided.

: Seeds have traditionally been collected according to their reproductive cycles, i.e. the time when they lose their potential of becoming a real plant. Therefore, the locations of botanic gardens or seed banks imply the vicinity of agricultural land. This article exemplifies the transformation of plant collections into gene and data banks by investigating the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (SGSV) in Norway and the German Genebank for Fruit Crops (DGO). It shows that international efforts to safeguard biodiversity by intertwining them with bioinformatics infrastructure transform seeds and other plant genetic material into digitalized objects. The almost virtual genetic material, now stored without the neighborhood of acres or gardens, is, at the same time, seen as “options” for new high-tech plants, which might be transplanted to a future territory. Consequently, plant varieties are circulating around the globe in form of genetic material and data. The article shows that the digitalizat...

Sunflower crop is introduced in India during early 70’s and within a span of two decades of its introduction it emerged as one of the most important oilseed crops in Indian oilseed scenario. The crop by virtue of its wide adaptability established itself as a major oilseed crop in southern part of the country and during the last decade has made a dent in non-traditional areas of Northern India in spring season. Due to its short growing season, it is cultivated in 2-3 growing seasons per year under assured irrigation and is identified as an ideal crop in various intercropping systems and cropping sequences. Owing to its short duration, it is also considered as a major contingent crop during late onset of monsoon in Peninsular India. However, sunflower production in India is severely constrained by the heavy yield losses due to diseases like Alternaria leaf spot, sunflower necrosis disease, downy mildew, powdery mildew and rust. Further, susceptibility of this crop to water stress in rainfed cultivation results in low yields. Hence, recent years have witnessed a decline in the acreage under the crop mostly in the traditional sunflower growing regions like Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh states. Furthermore, the present day hybrids are  medium duration and suitable for a number of situations, but hybrids of early (75-80 days) and late duration (110-120 days) are also required for accommodating sunflower in different agro-climatic nitches and cropping systems. Late duration hybrids are more productive in the kharif rainfed situations, where a single crop is taken.  Short duration hybrids are in great demand for the multiple cropping systems especially for spring situations of Northern India. To meet the challenges of genetic vulnerability to biotic and abiotic stresses and also for enhancing the levels of heterosis, diverse genetic resources including CMS and restorer lines are required. The Sunflower Germplasm Catalogue provides information, on the availability of sunflower accessions conserved and maintained at the IIOR gene bank located at Hyderabad. The descriptive material will help the sunflower breeders to identify accessions, while the information on evaluation and uses will help in selection of diverse materials to suit various purposes, as promising parents for exploitation in breeding programmes or for immediate use. The information on scientific evaluation relating to morphological descriptors and yield related traits is also provided.
The catalogue presents comprehensive and sound scientific content aiming at increasing awareness about the sunflower accessions available and the extent of diversity therein. The information in the catalogue has been presented in a simple manner so that it is attractive and easily accessible, while retaining its technical rigour to be appreciated by sunflower researchers.
The whole-hearted commitment of the scientists of IIOR, NBPGR, AICRP (Sunflower) centres who have contributed to the programme and provided the data for this publication is gratefully acknowledged.

Seeds have traditionally been collected according to their reproductive cycles, i.e. the time when they lose their potential of becoming a real plant. Therefore, the locations of botanic gardens or seed banks imply the vicinity of agricultural land. This article exemplifies the transformation of plant collections into gene and data banks by investigating the Svalbard Global Seed Vault (SGSV) in Norway and the German Genebank for Fruit Crops (DGO). It shows that international efforts to safeguard biodiversity by intertwining them with bioinformatics infrastructure transform seeds and other plant genetic material into digitalized objects. The almost virtual genetic material, now stored without the neighborhood of acres or gardens, is, at the same time, seen as “options” for new high-tech plants, which might be transplanted to a future territory. Consequently, plant varieties are circulating around the globe in form of genetic material and data. The article shows that the digitalization induces a specific distinction between the material and the digital flows of plants.