Download The Germplasm Bank of Wild Species, Southwest China

BCAS
Vol.24 No.4 2010
The Germplasm Bank of Wild Species,
Southwest China
LI Dezhu, YANG Xiangyun, WANG Yuhua & CAI Jie
Kunming Institute of Botany, CAS, Kunming, 650204
G
reen plants are the primary producers of ecosystems
on Earth. However, plant diversity is currently being
lost at an unprecedented rate, perhaps as much as
100- to 1000-fold higher than during the recent geological
past, resulting in an associated decrease in ecosystem
services, such as the provision of food, fuel, biochemicals and
fiber. To meet the demand of plant diversity conservation,
the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (2001–2010)
was approved in Decision VI/9 of the Conference of the
Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in
2002. Priorities have been set for threatened species and
regions and for the development of protocols and models
to enhance the conservation options for both crops and
wild species; the remaining targets on plant diversity cover
understanding, conservation, sustainable use, promotion of
education and capacity-building for conservation action.
Areas featuring exceptional concentrations of endemic
species were identified as biodiversity hotspots and most
A nationwide cooperative network for collecting germplasm of wild species has been set up in China.
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Vol.24 No.4 2010
A young scientist is conducting experiments at the plant genomics
laboratory.
of these are experiencing exceptional loss of habitat. China
is megadiverse, with 31,000 species of vascular plants
and harbors 4 (including Mountains of Southwest China,
Mountains of Central Asia, Himalaya and Indo-Burma)
of the 34 global biodiversity hotspots. Approximately two
thirds of the vascular plant species of China are in the
southwest, which is a region with the most endemic-rich
temperate flora in the world, the center of distribution of
many genera (e.g. Rhododendron and Primula [10]), and
the location of an evergreen broadleaved forest ecosystem
dominated by subtropical species of Fagaceae, Lauraceae,
Theaceae and Magnoliaceae.
China has been a fastest-growing nation for the past
30 years with an average annual GDP growth rate above
10%. The impact of economic growth on the environment
and biodiversity are immense. As China is unique for a
combination of one eighth of the entire world flora, the
largest population and the fastest growing economy on
Earth, conservation actions, both in situ and ex situ, will
be of great significance at the global, regional and national
level.
As a major kind of renewable natural resources,
biological resources are essential for the sustainable
development of human society. Wild plants and animals
can be the gene pools that shed light on the breeding of
new cultivars, and are widely used as ingredients of natural
medicines. Today, many countries in the world have set up
germplasm banks to preserve and manage their biological
resources. It is of high necessity and urgency to build up a
germplasm bank in China and to conserve wild plant and
animal species for the sustainability of the nation.
In August 1999, WU Zhengyi (Cheng-yih Wu), a
distinguished botanist and a Senior Member of Chinese
Academy of Sciences (CAS), wrote to then Chinese Premier
ZHU Rongji and urged to set up a germplasm bank of wild
species in southwest China’s Yunnan Province. Two years
Germplasm Resources
later, an official proposal and feasibility report was handed
in by the provincial government of Yunnan and CAS to the
central government. The construction of the germplasm bank
to be based at the CAS Kunming Institute of Botany (KIB)
was approved as a national large-scale scientific facility
project in 2004, with a total investment of 148 million RMB
(about US$22 million).
While the construction was being undertaken, KIB
scientists set out to collect, evaluate and preserve the
germplasm of wild species across the nation. The bank was
put into trial operation at the end of 2007, and officially
opened in October 2008. The whole project passed national
review and audit in November 2009.
The bank will be developed into a world-leading facility
for the study and preservation of germplasm resources of
rare and endangered, endemic and economically important
plants, animal species and microorganisms, so as to
safeguard the bioresources of strategic significance in China,
to provide germplasm material and relevant information
needed in the biotech industry and life science research,
to promote the industrialization of biotechnology and the
sustainable development of economy, and to contribute
to China’s fulfillment of the Conventions on Biological
Diversity.
A prior task of the bank is to collect as many as 66,500
accessions of 6,450 endangered and endemic species and
those of potential scientific or economic values in the bank’s
five subordinate sections – the seed bank, the in vitro plant
germplasm bank, the microbial germplasm bank, the DNA
bank and the animal germplasm bank by 2010. By 2020,
the bank’s preservation will stand at 190,000 accessions for
19,000 species.
With the support of a nation-wide network of
universities, research institutions and natural reserves, KIB
staff had achieved the first phase of target by the end of
The building of the Germplasm Bank of Wild Species (GBOWS).
Bulletin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
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BCAS
Vol.24 No.4 2010
Workers with the Germplasm Bank of Wild Species (GBOWS) are gathering seeds on the Tibetan Plateau.
2009. After processing and standardization, the seed bank
now holds plant seeds of 166 families, 1,337 genera and
4,781 species which account for 16.72% of the country’s
entire native flora of flowering plants. Among them, 1,339
species are endemic to China, 73 are endangered and
1,235 of potential economic values. The botanists have
also collected 49,580 germplasm specimens representing
437 species of living plants, 13,805 animal germplasm
materials representing 354 species, 8,359 samples of 1,119
microorganism species, and 11,025 DNA samples of 1,200
plant species.
With the help of information technology, researchers
have standardized the relevant information of the germplasm
materials and submitted them into a database which now
contains information for 31, 985 accessions of seeds, 11,808
DNA samples, 78,384 voucher herbarium specimens as
well as 78,142 images. The bank’s website (http://www.
genobank.org) facilitates the management and sharing
of germplasm information, as 37,124 relevant data and
43,821 images are now open to public users. To guide field
collection, the botanists have also compiled the Digital
Dictionary of Yunnan Flora which is made up of nearly 1
million articles of records for 433 families, 3,000 genera and
16,000 species of plants in the province of Yunnan.
The germplasm bank in southwest China has promoted
the establishment of a nationwide network for the collection
and preservation of germplasms. The network covers a vast
area from the southwest, northwest to central, north and east
China, and pools efforts from 58 universities and research
266 Bulletin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences
institutes with more than 600 professionals. The bank is also
actively coordinating some 13 natural reserves across the
nation, and 450 personnel have been trained for standardized
collection of germplasm materials of wild species.
Since the construction of the bank was kicked off, KIB
researchers have been carrying out major scientific programs
on, for instance, piloting the standardization of the collection
and conservation of germplasm materials of important wild
species and data sharing, the investigation and preservation
of wild plants on the Tibetan Plateau, and the research on
DNA barcoding of plants based on the germplasm bank.
KIB scientists have also used the germplasm bank to
A staff is processing the seeds collected from field investigation.
Vol.24 No.4 2010
promote the industrialization of bioresources, especially the
breeding and transformation of new varieties of ornamental
plants, and the development and transformation of new
biomedicines. For instance, the floriculture is a key industry
in Yunnan Province. KIB, with its particular research and
advantages in this area, has provided technical support for
the development of local enterprises, and enhanced the
competitiveness of their products by transfer of patents,
newly bred cultivars and relevant technologies.
On the whole, the project is a very positive and
necessary step toward the conservation of the diverse wild
species in China. Strong economic growth and concerns
about climate change have compelled CAS to support
this important conservation initiative. The bank is taking
representative genetic diversity by population sampling of
seeds of higher plants to ensure the conservation of adequate
genetic variation for restoration and for future use. As the
focus is on the preservation of indigenous and non-cultivated
species, they could prove to be pest resilient, conducive
to crop cultivation on marginal lands, as well as the new
sources of medicines and biofuels. As far as we know, only
a narrow range of species have been kept in seedbanks while
tens of thousands of others are being used by indigenous
people. Without this project we may be in danger of losing
those genetic resources in China.
As the largest of its kind in Asia, the bank won
immediate international recognition. Upon inauguration,
it received 204 accessions of seed samples from the
Millennium Seed Bank of Royal Botanic Garden, Kew, UK.
It has also welcomed 365 samples of forest tree seeds from
the World Agroforestry Center. By far, it has exchanged 1,875
samples of seeds with overseas partners.
Although five years of endeavor has led to a successful
completion of the initial goal, the long-term target of
preserving 19,000 species and 190,000 accessions of
Germplasm Resources
The seeds are processed and kept in cold rooms for long-term
storage.
germplasms within the next ten years is still arduous
enough for KIB staff. They are also thinking about shifting
the focus from collecting sufficient samples. For them, to
preserve germplasm materials of 10,000 more species in
the coming decade is a most challenging but significant
work to do.
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