Abstract
The RDA Genebank project has been implemented as a national program in Rep. of Korea to collect, characterize, evaluate, rejuvenate, conserve and use plant, microorganism and animal genetic resources for food and agriculture since 1985. National Agrobiodivresity Center (NAC) has functioned as a central bank of the project in cooperation with other agricultural public and private sectors. This national network on genetic resources for food and agriculture currently preserves approximately 154,695 accessions of crops germplasm and wild relatives as the base collection of about 1700 species involving 26,125 accessions of clonal crops. About 100,000 accessions are conserved as active collection, which are able to distribute mainly for breeding and research purposes under the regulation of MTA between RDA Genebank and recipients worldwide. We have undertaken international collaboration with several Asian countries focusing on ex situ conservation of plant genetic resources.
Research highlights on conservation and utilization of plant genetic resources are discussed.
Introduction
The RDA (Rural Development Administration) plays a key role in planning and supporting the national program on conservation and use of crop genetic resources. RDA Genebank (RDAGB) was established in 1988 and organized as a National Agrobiodivresity Center (NAC) of RDA on 3 November, 2006 of the completion of the new bank facilities. The genebank projects undertake research on germplasm collection, characterization, evaluation, conservation and documentation for future use. The Genetic Resources Council (GRC) and the Germplasm Advisory Committee (GAC) advise RDA with establishment of national strategies for Plant Genetic Resources (PGR) activities such as priority settings for collecting,
1 Head of Information Network, RDA Genebank, Korea. E-mail: [email protected]
and making recommendations to carry out characterization, evaluation, and utilization of PGR throughout the nation. Evaluation and regeneration of the PGRs are conducted jointly with other related research institutions. The seeds multiplication and the data evaluation at those related institutions are sent back to RDAGB for conservation and utilization.
The RDAGB’s effort has been focused on the collection, conservation, and utilization of PGRs for using in research for crop improvement and other utilizations. Research infrastructure of PGR is very important in order to improve and utilize the collections. However, there are numerous problems encountered in the conservation and utilization of PGR in Korea. Also, social understanding and consensus (i.e. public awareness) on the important issues of genetic diversity or PGR are needed urgently. For realizing further development of food and agriculture and for achieving three objectives of the CBD, the RDAGB pursues the proposed activities for implementing Global Plan of Action (GPA) adopted by the International Technical Conference on Plant Genetic Resources in Leipzig, 1996 (FAO, 1996).
The conservation and utilization of PGRs need a long-term plan at the national and international level. Further efforts are required to develop additional databases for germplasm including additional image data, DNA profiles, and molecular characterization. The RDAGB has started the conservation of mutant and genetic stocks for genomic and functional researches. For upgrading characterization and evaluation data of PGRs through using genetic and biochemical tools including gene expression displays such as DNA microarray data has to be involved in the program of PGRs in the Republic of Korea.
In situ management of agro-biodiversity
The RDAGB has surveyed the distribution of some wild relatives of crop species and the diversity assessment of weedy type found in farmers’ lands. The wild adzuki bean (V.
angularis var. nipponesis) is a progenitor of the cultivated type (V. angularis var. angularis) and V. nakashimae is a wild relative (Fig. 1). Both two wild species are distributed in the whole regions of the Korean peninsula. The survey on the distribution of the wild adzuki bean and its relative species, V. nakashimae, has been conducted in the basins of ‘Taebaek’ and ‘Jindo’ in Korea. Seeds of 165 accessions were sampled for planting for further characterization in 2002. The RDAGB preserves about 1,000 accessions of wild soybean, which were collected during 1991-1995. The supplemental surveying on the wild soybean was implemented for the in situ management of crop wild species (Fig. 1).
The weedy rice was surveyed across the different regions based on the five rivers, Hangang, Geumgang, Nakdonggang, Yeongsangang, and Seomjingang. A total of 3599 accessions including collections from Jeju island were sampled from nine provinces and it had been done in 2002. These collections are complementary one for the previous weedy collections made by Dr. Suh in the Yeongnam University. These accessions were re-evaluated by comparative analysis based on phenotypic and DNA analysis during 2004-2005. The duplication and on-farm conservation status should be fully understood by the following study.
Wild Vigna Weedy Rice
Fig. 1. The comparison of seeds in Vigna angularis and V. nakashimae (left), and the characteristics of plant and spike type of weedy rice (right).
The surveys have been conducted over several years (Ahn et al. 1994). The result shown the crop landraces disappeared very fast from the farms in Korea. Only 26% of the various crop landraces could be found according to the survey in three locations in South Korea in 1993 relative to 1985. A similar trend could be expected in other rapidly developing countries. One of the main reasons for the genetic erosion of landraces is their rapid replacement by a much narrower spectrum of bred cultivars improved cultivars. Other reasons are the simplified cropping systems and young people migration into city due to mechanization of agricultural system. The status of landraces maintained on farms at different geographic locations in South Korea was investigated in 1985, 1993, and 2000. Therefore, 274 farms were established in the remote mountainous areas such as ‘Pyungchang’ and
‘Youngduk’ in 1985. However, the number of farms was eventually reduced to 44 (16.1%) in 2000. The numbers of farms were reduced from 170 to 18 (10.6%) in sub mountainous areas,
from 537 to 65 (12.1%) in plain cultivating areas, 463 to 66 (6.6%) in suburb areas and from 34 to 1 (2.9%) in Jeju Island. Jeju Island is the biggest island in Korea. Thus, 1478 farms held landraces in 1985, in which 194 (13.1%) farms were still cultivating at least one landrace in 2000. It is a general tendency that farming areas near to cities would lose crop landraces resulting from changing to new commercial cultivars. According to the species diversity is based on the number of crop species kept by farms, the relative retained proportions of crop species appeared to be 29.3%, 35.5%, 28.6%, and 4.5%, respectively, in different farming areas in 2000, compared to that of 1985. With average, about 28.2% of crop species were maintained in 2000 versus in 1985. More diversity of crop species was cultivated in the plain and rural farming areas rather than the remote mountainous farming areas. In general, the total number of varieties hold by farms has been also drastically decreased. The number of varieties in remote mountainous areas was relatively higher than that of other areas.
The industrialization of agriculture led farmers to change their traditional varieties to new-bred ones or simplify diverse varieties into one or a few. About 35% farmers were holding landraces because of high quality (35%), 34% because of importance of heritage for home consumption while 31% for other preferred reasons (Fig. 2). On the other hand several reasons were also identified which forced the farmers to avoid use of landraces. Among these, 25% for farmers having no land anymore as they moved to cities, 23% for quitting farming, 9% for shifting to new varieties, 17% for cheap prices relative to new varieties, 19% for lack of labour, and 7% for unknown reasons.
Fig. 2. The preference and avoidance for cultivating landraces in farms in Korea.