Genesys is an online, global portal about plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. It is a gateway from which

germplasm Germplasm are living genetic resources such as seeds or tissues that are maintained for the purpose of animal and plant breeding, preservation, and other research uses. These resources may take the form of seed collections stored in seed banks, tr ...

accessions from

gene bank Gene banks are a type of biorepository that preserves genetic material. For plants, this is done by in vitro storage, freezing cuttings from the plant, or stocking the seeds (e.g. in a seedbank). For animals, this is done by the freezing of ...

s around the world can be easily found and ordered. The project started in 2008 by

Bioversity International Bioversity International is a global research-for-development organization that delivers scientific evidence, management practices and policy options to use and safeguard agricultural biodiversity to attain global food and nutrition security, wor ...

, the

Global Crop Diversity Trust The Crop Trust, officially known as the Global Crop Diversity Trust, is an international nonprofit organization with a secretariat in Bonn, Germany. Its mission is to conserve and make available the world's crop diversity for food security. Establ ...

and the Secretariat of the

International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture The International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (also known as ITPGRFA, International Seed Treaty or Plant Treaty), is a comprehensive international agreement in harmony with the Convention on Biological Diversity, ...

, "to create a single information portal to facilitate the access to, and use of, accessions in ''ex situ'' gene banks". In May 2011, the first version of the website was launched, containing 2.3 million accession records and some three million phenotypic records for 22

crop A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. When the plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture or hydroponic ...

s: bananas, barley, beans, breadfruit, cassava, chickpeas, coconuts, cowpeas, faba beans, finger millet, grass peas, lentils, maize, pearl millet, pigeon peas, potatoes, rice, sorghum, sweet potatoes, taro, wheat and yams. It brought together data from three major networks: the European Plant Genetic Resources Search Catalogue (EURISCO), System-Wide Information Network for Genetic Resources (SINGER) from

CGIAR CGIAR (formerly the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) is a global partnership that unites international organizations engaged in research about food security. CGIAR research aims to reduce rural poverty, increase food ...

and the US Department of Agriculture's Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). In 2014, the second version of the website was launched. As of March 2015, the database listed 2.7 million accessions stored in 446 institutes from 252 countries. The source code, notably for the web server, is available online.

References

External links

Genesys home page

EURISCO home page

GRIN home page
{{Webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090814093722/http://www.ars-grin.gov/sitemapgrin.html , date=2009-08-14 Plant genetics German science websites

See also

References

External links