National abaca germplasm collection, maintenance, characterization and utilization
2013
Moreno, L.O. | Gapasin, R.M. | Duatin, F.M.Y. | Ocon, F.L. | Parac, A.A. | Jacobe, J.G.
Germplasm is the foundation for sustainable agriculture and global food security. They possess genes that offer resistance to pests and diseases and resilience to abiotic stresses. NARC [National Abaca Research Center, Baybay, Leyte, Philippines] maintains the largest abaca germplasm collection in the country consisting of 868 different cultivated landraces, hybrids, wild types and musa relatives. However, this collection was reduced over the years to 333 (38.36%) because of ABTV infection and environmental factors like severe drought and flooding resulting to the loss of 535 (61.64%) abaca accessions. A complimentary in vitro conservation serves as duplicate of the field genebank to protect further possible losses of the collections in the field and for easy access of clean and healthy planting materials to end users and clientele. The use of 3% sorbitol and 4% surcrose as slow growth medium showed the best result in maintaining the cultures longer for 8 to 12 months without the need of frequent transfer to new medium. Fifty five accessions that were lost in the field because of ABTV infection were recovered from the in vitro germplasm and were reintroduced back into the field genebank. Twenty four promising high yielding abaca accessions were selected as suitable for fibercraft and cordage industries and 21 promising accessions for the pulp and paper industry.
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