130 likes | 145 Views
Gain insights from a seasoned curator on the challenges faced in managing plant genetic resources collections and the role of Curator-GCG interactions in optimizing their effectiveness. Discover the realities of resource limitations and the need for collaboration to enhance characterization, evaluation, and preservation efforts. Enhance your understanding of the importance of these resources for future utilization.
E N D
Curator and CGC Interactions: A Curator’s Perspective Gary Pederson USDA, ARS, PGRCU Griffin, GA
CGC experience • Clover plant breeder – 18 years • Early user of GRIN and plant genetic resources • Requested 3,408 accessions • Clover CGC member – 15 years • Clover CGC Chair – 3 years • Attended three CGC Chairs meetings
NPGS experience • Research Leader – 9 years • Plant Genetic Resources Conservation Unit, Griffin, GA • Annual clover curator – 9 years • Sorghum coordinator – 9 years • Currently acting sorghum curator • Acting Vigna curator – 3 years
NPGS experience • CGCs for Griffin collections • Capsicum (pepper) • Clover and Special Purpose Legumes • Cucurbit • Forage and Turf Grass • New Crops • Peanut • Sorghum and Millet • Sweetpotato • Vigna (cowpea, mung bean)
NPGS experience • CGCs for Griffin collections • Capsicum (pepper) (2) • Clover and Special Purpose Legumes (9) • Cucurbit (1) • Forage and Turf Grass (8) • New Crops (2) • Peanut (3) • Sorghum and Millet (9) • Sweetpotato(3) • Vigna (cowpea, mung bean) (4)
Expectations – Plant breeder and CGC member • Large, genetically-diverse collection that contained all the variation that I needed. • All accessions viable and available. • All accessions completely characterized for all descriptors. • Viewed GRIN as a big spreadsheet with a lot of holes that needed to be filled.
Realities – Research Leader and Curator • Financial and physical resources limit the size of plant genetic resources collections. • Germination testing and seed regeneration take labor, time, and money. • Viability, availability, and backups are higher priorities than characterization/evaluation.
Realities – Everything takes money and labor Sample GS-4 salary (x$1,000) at Griffin Number of federal employees at Griffin *Graph from NPGCC presentation by Peter Bretting (2010).
Realities – Everything takes time • If an action by one person takes one minute to complete for one accession: • 60 accessions per hour • 480 accessions per day • 2,400 accessions per week • 37.8 weeks (8+ months) for all 90,668 accessions at Griffin
Realities – Everything takes time • Germination testing • Since 2002, 67% of accessions tested • Deposit seed in -18 C for long-term storage • Since 2001, bulk of seed for 70% of accessions are in -18 C storage
How can CGCs help? • Give advice (gaps in collection, acquisitions, duplicates) • Inform curator and RL of users’ concerns. • Provide characterization and evaluation data for GRIN • once the data has been published. • Provide information on use of plant genetic resources in publications and cultivar development. • Suggest improvements to NPGS (collection, descriptors, GRIN, data).
Goals – Successful CGC/Curator Interaction • Develop and preserve excellent, useful plant genetic resources collections. • Work together to improve plant genetic resources collections. • Be persistent in making progress (it takes time!) • Help get the collections to where they should be. • Look ahead to the future and future use of plant genetic resources.
After all, great germplasm collectionsaren’t built in a day!