Studies on improving conservation technologies of crop genetic resources and gene bank activities in correspondence with drastically changing relevant international conditions

With advances in modern plant breeding improved cultivars have rapidly replaced landraces resulting in genetic erosion. Crop landraces have accumulated a number of favorable genes in the process of the natural evolution and farmer/plant breeder selection. As new cultivar replace old cultivars it is unclear what genes are being lost that may be important in the future. The role of the gene bank is to conserve crop landraces and their wild relatives so that these materials will be available when needed for the present as well as future generations. In this paper, the technological and legal issues related with preservation and use of crop genetic resources are discussed. In addition some issues that still need to be resolved are discussed. Since the scope of genetic resources was expanded to all species in the global ecosystem, the concept of genetic resources has drastically changed from conservation of seeds to conservation of various plant parts, DNA materials, genetic and genome information. Today the concept of gene bank work encompasses a far broader array of materials than previously. To cope with the recent scientific and technological advances for preserving and using crop genetic resources, the following improvements are needed in the gene bank activities. (1) Enhanced duplication for secure conservation of crop genetic resources. (2) More efficient service to offer crop genetic resources with abundant useful information on the germplasm such as characterization and evaluation data. (3) Integration of information on where locally preserved genetic resources are stored and by whom within local governments and the private sector. (4) Extension of gene bank activity to enable conserved germplasm to be used as experimental materials as part of national intellectual infrastructure.