Germplasm Resources Information Network or GRIN is an online
USDA
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of comme ...
National Genetic Resources Program software project to comprehensively manage the computer database for the holdings of all plant
germplasm collected by the
National Plant Germplasm System.
GRIN has extended its role to manage information on the germplasm reposits of insect (
invertebrate
Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chorda ...
),
microbial
A microorganism, or microbe,, ''mikros'', "small") and ''organism'' from the el, ὀργανισμός, ''organismós'', "organism"). It is usually written as a single word but is sometimes hyphenated (''micro-organism''), especially in olde ...
, and animal species (see
sub-projects).
[
]
Description
The site is a resource for identifying taxonomic information (scientific names) as well as common namescultivars
A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...
etc.) of plants covering 10,000 species;[ It gives 450,000 accessions (outdated; GRIN gives 500,000 as of June 2012).] both economically important ones[ and wild species. It profiles plants that are invasive or noxious weeds,][ threatened or endangered,][ giving out data on worldwide distribution][ of its habitat; as well as passport information.][
The network is maintained by GRIN's Database Management Unit (GRIN/DBMU).][ which in 1990 replaced its forerunner, the Germplasm Services Laboratory (GSL),][ that had formerly run GRIN.]
Sub-projects
A stated mission of GRIN is to support the following projects:
See also
* Natural Resources Conservation Service
Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), formerly known as the Soil Conservation Service (SCS), is an agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that provides technical assistance to farmers and other private landowners an ...
* Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database
Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database (MMPND) is a multilingual database of names of taxa of plants.
It is located at the University of Melbourne and it is managed and maintained by Michel H. Porcher. This database includes the names of ta ...
* International Plant Names Index
* List of electronic Floras (for online flora databases).
References
External links
*
* The NRCS also maintains th
PLANT database
{{authority control
Genetics organizations
United States Department of Agriculture
Biodiversity databases
Online taxonomy databases
Year of establishment missing