Initiative Stems from Plant Gene Banks: Could We Feed the World?

Many scientists believe that part of saving the planet stems from protecting the plants and animals that help make it thrive. When we do this, they just might give us something in return. 

According to a recent study, researchers from Cornell University believe that tapping into the seeds and soil of unused plants could be the key to feeding parts of the world in the near future.

Geneticist Susan McCouch said she believes that the biodiversity stored in plant gene banks coupled with advances in genetics and plant breeds could hold the key for much needed demands throughout the country.

"Gene banks hold hundreds of thousands of seeds and tissue culture materials collected from farmer's fields and from wild, ancestral populations, providing the raw material that plant breeders need to create crops of the future," McCouch said, via a press release.

McCouch and colleagues screened over 6,000 varieties from seed banks. Background information from the study shows that plant breeders have identified and crossbred a single wild species of rice known as Oryza nivara, with results that exhibit a variety that is protected against grassy stunt virus disease in most all tropical rice varieties found in Asia over the past 36 years.

And though these seeds are readily accessible in 1,700 gene banks throughout the world, "they are not used to their full potential in plant breeding," McCouch notes, via the release.

For the study, McCouch hopes a three-point plan could address the constraints described above, also including lack of information about the genes in most plants and traits that breeders may not be aware of.

• A massive genetic sequencing effort on seed-bank holdings to document what exists in the collections, to strategically target experiments to evaluate what traits a plant has (called phenotyping) and to begin to predict plant performance.
• A broad phenotyping initiative, not only of the gene bank holdings, but also of the progeny generated from crossing wild and exotic materials to adapted varieties targeted for local use.
• An internationally accessible informatics infrastructure to coordinate data that are currently managed independently by gene-bank curators, agronomists and breeders.

The estimated cost for this collaborative global effort would be around $200 million, according to McCouch.

More information regarding this study can be found in the journal Nature.