Schriften zu Genetischen Ressourcen - Genres

Evaluations
K. HAMMER
As early as in 1955, the first paper about evaluation of resistance characters of
spring barleys from the Gatersleben collection against mildew appeared under the
programmatic title of ”Resistenzeigenschaften im Gersten- und Weizensortiment
Gatersleben” (resistance characters in the barley and wheat collection Gatersleben)
(NOVER and MANSFELD 1955). R. Mansfeld was responsible for the exact characterisation
and determination of the crop plant material, while Ilse Nover, a phytopathologist
from the University of Halle, investigated the fungal parasite. This evaluation
work was later on called “secondary evaluation” (e.g., HAMMER et al. 1998) because it
is done by genebank staff in co-operation with specialists from other disciplines.
Soon the series was continued (NOVER and MANSFELD 1956, 1959; NOVER 1962),
and developed into one of the most successful disease resistance evaluation programmes.
The last number of the series (29) appeared in 1989 (PROESELER et al.
1989). For a brief review see HAMMER (1991) and WALTHER et al. (1997). Later on
this work also included other crops than cereals with specific diseases (e.g., SCHOLZE
and HAMMER 1998). The results of these studies have been of great economic importance.
Between 1973 and 1990, 46 cereal varieties bred on the basis of resistance
evaluations conducted in the Gatersleben genebank have been released in
East Germany (see HAMMER 1991). There is a considerable delay of time between
the identification of new resistance sources and their incorporation into new varieties
(see table 1). This may be one of the reasons for the sporadic report about successful
use of genebank material in breeding.
Tab. 1: Time span between the identification of new resistance sources and
their incorporation into new cereal varieties (data from the Gatersleben
Genebank, after HAMMER 1991)
Crop Begin of testing Literature source Cultivar Year of release
Spring barley 1954
NOVER and MANS-
FELD 1955
Winter wheat ca. 1960 NOVER 1962
Travelling mission
‘Trumpf’ 1973
‘Compal’
‘Fakon’
1981
1981
R. Mansfeld did not like to travel (HANELT 2003. But as it was one of the tasks of the
Gatersleben Institute to mount large collecting missions, he decided to participate in
the Chinese-German Biological Collecting Mission through North and North-East
China from May to September 1956 (ANONYMOUS 1957). During this mission, he established
a special approach for investigating crop plants in their local environments,
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