Скачать или смотреть Dr. Irish and Dr. Greene: ARS National Plant Germplasm System's Role in Native Plant Conservation

FEATURED PRESENTER: Dr. Brian Irish, Geneticist/Curator and Dr. Stephanie Greene, Supervisory Plant Physiologist, USDA Agricultural Research Service

TOPIC: ARS National Plant Germplasm System’s Role in Native Plant Conservation

ABOUT THE PRESENTATION: The Agricultural Research Service’s National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS) has a long history of safeguarding and providing access to agriculturally important plant genetic resources. With just over 600,000 accessions held, this germplasm underpins crop improvement and research in the U.S. and internationally. Curators actively manage collections: acquiring, increasing, storing, evaluating, documenting, and distributing samples of domesticated species and associated information. Genetic resources of wild plant species are also managed and have become increasingly important. Starting in the early 2000s, collaborations with the Bureau of Land Management have enabled more U.S. native plant genetic resources to be incorporated into NPGS collections. To date over 19,000 accessions corresponding to more than 4,300 species, along with associated passport information, have been added. Many of the collected species play important roles in landscape restoration activities but might also have collateral benefits for crop improvement, or direct human use. There is an impressive range of diversity in these collections, but this diversity is precisely the reason for this material being so difficult to manage. Protocols for long-term conservation, including seed regeneration and storage activities, have not been developed for many of these species. Because of the preceding managerial challenges, as the NPGS collections continue to grow, collaboration with other agencies and organizations, in concert with combining resources, are increasingly necessary to meet the common goals of conservation and sustainable use of native wild plant genetic resources.

ABOUT OUR PRESENTERS: Dr. Brian M. Irish is a Geneticist/Curator and Lead Scientist with the USDA-ARS Plant Germplasm Introduction and Testing Research Unit co-located at Washington State University’s Irrigated Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Prosser, WA. The project he leads is responsible for the acquisition, maintenance, disease-free propagation and regeneration, characterization, evaluation, and distribution of the close to 13,000 accessions within the temperate-adapted forage legume (TFL) germplasm collection. The TFL genetic resources collections include large numbers of alfalfa, clover, trefoil accessions and their wild relatives. For the past two and a half years he also has led an interagency (BLM/ARS) project on the long-term conservation of U.S. native plants used for restoration and agricultural purposes. Dr. Irish spent the first 11 years of his ARS career at the USDA-ARS Tropical Agriculture Research Station in Mayaguez, PR where he managed clonally propagated agriculturally important tropical genetic resources as a Horticulturist/Curator and Lead Scientist. Dr. Irish obtained a B.S. in Horticulture, a M.S. in Plant Pathology, and a Ph.D. in Plant Science from the University of Arkansas.

Dr. Stephanie Greene is a Supervisory Plant Physiologist with the USDA Agricultural Research Service, located at the National Laboratory for Genetic Resource Preservation (NLGRP), at Fort Collins, Colorado. NLGRP provides secure backup storage of the USDA National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS) collection, and other seed collections from around the world, making it one of the largest seed repositories in the world. Dr. Greene serves as the seed curator and is responsible for seed receiving, processing, packaging, storage and distribution, carried out by a talented staff of biological science technicians and computer specialists. Dr. Greene’s research has focused on the conservation of crop wild relative species native to the United States. She has also managed the long-term preservation of Seeds of Success germplasm. Dr. Greene has worked in the NPGS since 1992, and curated the temperate forage legume collection until 2014, when she transferred to Fort Collins. Dr. Greene was educated as a plant breeder, receiving her B.S. and M.S. from the University of Idaho, and her Ph.D. from Kansas State University.