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THE STATUS OF TRADITIONAL SCOTTISH ANIMAL BREEDS AND PLANT VARIETIES AND THE IMPLICATIONS FOR BIODIVERSITY

CHAPTER TWELVE: SUMMARY OF CULTIVARS IN COLLECTIONS AND REVIEW OF ORGANIZATIONS CONCERNED IN THE CONSERVATION OF CEREAL GERMPLASM

12.1 Collections of cereals were surveyed by consulting experts, literature searches and through internet searches. Historically the cereal collections of the Plant Breeding Institute, Cambridge (PBI) the Welsh Plant Breeding Station, Aberyswyth (WPBS) and the Scottish Plant Breeding Station, Edinburgh (SPBS) were centralised at the Plant Breeding Institute during the review that led to the amalgamation of the Scottish Plant Breeding Station with the Scottish Horticultural Research Institute to form the Scottish Crop Research Institute. The sale of the PBI plant breeding programme to Unilever PLC resulted in the move of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council Cereal Collections to the John Innes Centre, Norwich (JIC). Curatorship of the cereal collection passed to Dr M. Ambrose, then in charge of the JIC Pisum collection. Access to the collection is possible by consulting a catalogue by the then AFRC Institute of Plant Science Research and the John Innes Institute, but this has not been updated since 1989, or for barley through the European Barley Database (EBDB), currently hosted at the Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, Gatersleben, Germany . Access to material in the collection is excellent but the level of duplication, implicit in the triplicate origin of the collection, is problematic.

12.2 The reduction of the publicly-funded plant breeding in the UK was mirrored by changes in Europe and worldwide. As a result of international treaty obligations the UK has contributed to the European Cooperative Programme for Crop Genetic Resources Networks (ECP/GR). The work is coordinated through the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI). IPGRI is based in Rome and is funded through the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). A wide range of networks has resulted in co-ordination of efforts through meetings of researchers concerned with genetic conservation of crops (Gass et al, 1999) including cereals (Maggioni et al, 2001), barley (Maggioni et al, 1999), oats (Maggioni et al, 1988), potatoes (Hoekstra et al, 2001), forage (IPGRI, 1991). Some attention has been given to on-farm conservation and collecting but this does not extend to Scottish cereals (Laliberté et al, 2000).

i http://barley.ipk-gatersleben.de/ebdb.php3
ii Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research
Corrensstraße 3
D-06466 Gatersleben
GERMANY
Tel: +49-39482-5327
Fax: +49-39482-5286

12.3 Within Germany re-unification has resulted in the amalgamation of collections, e.g. the barley collections at Braunschweig and Gatersleben are in the process of amalgamation. It is to be hoped that this will result in an increase in access to the barley collection but the difficulties of removing duplication etc. are considerable and the programme will be prolonged. In Sweden the Nordic Genebank announced a change in policy and will no longer maintain germplasm that originates from outside the Nordic countries. A more positive development is that the large collection of barley mutants created by Dr U. Lundqvist at Svalof is to be incorporated into the Nordic Genebank..

12.4 The result of searches for Scottish barley and oat cultivars is given in Tables 12.1 and 12.2. Even over the short time scale of the project access to information via the internet has improved. This is particularly true for barley where the European Barley Data Base was updated in November 2001. Other databases are in the process of updates so it is important to keep up - to - date with this aspect of the project work. As might be expected, given the historical origin, the largest numbers of "Scottish" cultivars were found in the collection of the John Innes Centre (JIC). The JIC collection holds 32 barley and 70 oats that appear to be adapted to Scottish conditions. The next largest collection, in terms of positive "hits" is that of the USDA, accessed via PCGRIN (personal computer version of the database for the Genetic Resources Information Network). Other collections have been explored, for example those held in New Zealand, but the short time-scale of this project may have resulted in some collections being overlooked.

12.5 A contrast between the livestock and crop component of the study lies in the use of genebanks to deposit seed of cultivars. Gene banks suffer from a number of inherent faults. The genetic diversity of an accession depends on systematic collection and efficient maintenance. In practise the ideal can rarely be achieved and many European landrace varieties have been lost. Given these limitations it is still possible for suitably equipped organisations to obtain small seed samples from a genebank, multiply the seed under high quality agronomy, check the identity and produce enough seed to grow replicated trials to assess agronomically important traits. SCRI has carried out an historical survey of spring barley germplasm from North West Europe and demonstrated the considerable gain in yield from breeding programmes between 1920 and 1970 (Figure 12.1). Care was taken to ensure that the seed from the JIC and other collections was true to type by comparing rows in the field with descriptions of the cultivars. DNA was extracted from samples grown in the glass house and used to provide SSR fingerprints that could be used for later identification and also to explore the genetic relationship between the cultivars (Russell et al, 2000). This latter exercise was most illuminating given that the alleles present in a representative collection of North West European cultivars could be traced back to just seventeen foundation cultivars, a good indication of the low level of genetic diversity in modern spring barley.

Table 12.1 Scottish barley cultivars found in searches of databases in Europe and the United States

Key to collections

JIC = John Innes Centre, Norwich

NGB = Nordic Genebank, Alnarp, Sweden

IPK = Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, Gatersleben, Germany

POL = Poland, National Centre for Plant Genetic Resources

USNP = United States National Plant Germplasm System

Table 12.2 "Scottish" oat cultivars found in searches of databases in Europe and the United States.

Key to collections

JIC = John Innes Centre, Norwich

BAZ = Braunschweigg, Germany

IPK = Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research, Gatersleben, Germany

POL = Poland, National Centre for Plant Genetic Resources

USNP = United States National Plant Germplasm System

Figure 12.1 Plot of yield against year of commercialisation for varieties multiplied at the Scottish Crop Research Institute from seed held at the BBSRC collection at the John Innes Centre. The cultivars indicated are 1) Proctor, 2) Golden Promise, 3) Triumph, 4) Optic.

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