Principles of Plant Breeding (2+1)

Meristem Gene Banks

• Germplasm of asexually propagated species can be conserved in the form of meristems. This method is widely used for conservation and propagation of horticultural species. In vitro method can be used in two ways.

  a. Storage of tissues under slow growth conditions.

  b. Long term conservation of germplasm by cryopreservation. In cryopreservation, the tissues are stored at a very low temperature i.e. at -1960C in liquid nitrogen.
  Gene banks for various crops in India

  Crop species	Location of Gene bank	Name of Research institute/Centre
  Wheat	Karnal	Directorate of Wheat Research (DWR)
  Rice	Cuttack	Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI)
  Potato	Shimla	Central Potato Research Institute (CPRI)
  Cotton	Nagpur	Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR)
  Pulses	Kanpur	Indian Institute for Pulses Research (IIPR)
  Oilseed crops	Hyderabad	Directorate of Oilseed Research (DOR)
  Sorghum	Hyderabad	National Research Centre for Sorghum
  Soybean	Indore	National Research Centre for Soybean

• Based on status of Research Institutes, gene banks are again of two types,

  (1) National gene banks
  (2) International or global gene banks.
• National gene banks are maintained by each country and global gene banks are located in International Crop Research Institutes/Centres. In India, gene banks are maintained by concerned Crop Research Institutes of ICAR. National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi is also maintaining germplasm of various field Crops.
• Germplasm can also be conserved in the form of pollen and DNA. However, these methods are not in common use. Conservation of germplasm in the form of DNA is a difficult task as it requires sophisticated laboratory and became expensive.