PROCINORTE supports research and preservation of genetic resources in Central America and Mexico

Quito, Ecuador, November 25, 2011 (IICA). By training specialists in the Management of GRIN-Global, an international system for documenting the germplasm banks of plants, the program for research and agricultural technology of Canada, the United States and Mexico (PROCINORTE), is contributing to the protection of the agricultural biodiversity of that region, as well as Central America.

Through NORGEN, the North American network for the management of genetic resources, PROCINORTE is also strengthening its collaboration with other networks and genetic banks within the hemisphere, as reported by its Executive Secretary, Priscila Henriquez.

She pointed out that this was relevant given that the genetic properties of plants and animals were essential to the improvement of species of agricultural importance, and could contribute to mitigation and adaptation to climate change, as well as to satisfying the need worldwide for more and better food.

Fernando de la Torre Sanchez, coordinator of NORGEN and Director of the National Centre for Genetic Resources of Mexico (Centro Nacional de Recursos Genéticos de México, CNRG) explained that GRIN-Global provides researchers with a very powerful information management tool that is both flexible and user-friendly, which the countries can use to increase their capacity to manage and exchange basic data from the germplasm bank.

At the beginning of November, 25 Mexican germplasm administrators and three others from Belize, Ecuador and Canada were trained in the use of GRIN-Global. Germplasm banks are among the strategies used by scientists to preserve the genetic diversity of plants, animals and micro-organisms, while GRIN-Global facilitates information-sharing to effect improvement of genetic diversity.

De la Torre participated in the VII International Symposium on Genetic Resources for Latin America and the Caribbean (SIRGEALC), held in Ecuador, where he presented a strategy for the hemisphere, supported by NORGEN, for the preservation and use of agro-biodiversity. His presentation was sponsored by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).

The CNRG in Mexico is strategically positioned to become the genetic resource bank for Central America and Mexico, as indicated by De la Torre, who also pointed out that the region, recognized as mega-diverse, was home to crops of significant importance to current food security, such as maize, beans, tomato, chili pepper and squash.

The Centre promotes three types of preservation for germplasm: long-term, in which resources are kept below -20°C; medium-term, with 4°C temperature and 20% relative humidity; in vitro preservation of plants and cyro-preservation in liquid nitrogen (at very low temperatures) of sperm, oocytes, embryonic cells and micro-organisms.

The GRIN-Global system was developed by the Agricultural Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA/ARS), and has also been adopted by Canada.

Priscila Henriquez, IICA specialist in technological innovation, indicated that the US GRIN provides information on more than half a million genetic resources of some 13,000 species, available in 21 germplasm banks of the USDA.

The counterpart system in Canada, GRIN-CA, possesses data on more than 100,000 genetic resources, corresponding to nearly 850 species.

According to Henriquez, the adoption of GRIN-Global in Mexico as a tool for documenting the germplasm banks in that country, will facilitate information sharing and genetic material with the rest of the hemisphere.

For more information, contact: 
PHenriquez@iicawash.org
orlando.vega@iica.int