Schriften zu Genetischen Ressourcen - Genres

R. Mansfeld’s scientific influence on genetic resources research
and his students transferred this knowledge to new generations of Gatersleben scientists
later on (see, e.g., HAMMER 1996, p. 246 and PISTRICK 2003). Several largestyle
missions have been conducted by Gatersleben scientists in the fifties and sixties
of the last century without R. Mansfeld but using his experiences. Crop collecting
missions started again in the seventies and turned out to be very successful. Many
countries were visited, and a great number of accessions was collected (HAMMER et
al. 1994, App. 3 and 4). A specific Gatersleben approach has been developed and
successfully followed (HAMMER et al. 1995, HAMMER 1999).
Maintaining collections
R. Mansfeld was a specialist for herbarium work (HANELT 2003). He transferred his
knowledge gained from the Herbarium in Berlin-Dahlem to Gatersleben. Here, also
parts from the living collection were included into the Gatersleben herbarium, forming
an excellent reference collection which allows the comparison with the living material
for the detection of undesired changes and consequences of mistakes in handling.
However, R. Mansfeld was also interested in the rejuvenation methods for genebank
accessions. Together with Christian Lehmann he carefully analysed and described
the technical details of practical genebank work in the experimental fields and wrote
a first paper about this subject (LEHMANN and MANSFELD 1957). This paper was the
basis for a more voluminous documentation, a typewritten book, which was circulating
in the genebank under the name of “Bible” and was consulted in critical cases of
genebank management. Later on, this documentation was used as a basis for a book
about the Gatersleben Genebank (GÄDE 1998).
The systematic study of practical work in genebanks is still a neglected field and the
publication from 1957 had very few successors, among them being the “Genebank
Protocol” of the Dutch genebank (HINTUM and HAZEKAMP 1993). The publication of
LEHMANN and MANSFELD (1957) deserves special interest also in another respect, as
it is the beginning of reports about the activities of the Gatersleben genebank. Later
on these reports were presented regularly (e.g., LEHMANN 1963) and thus helped in
the compilation of the comprehensive paper on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary
of the Gatersleben genebank (HAMMER et al. 1994).
Traditionally, Botanic Gardens are publishing an Index Seminum offering their seeds
for exchange with other gardens. R. Mansfeld introduced this possibility also for the
Gatersleben genebank, and the first Index Seminum was published in 1947 (32 pp.).
From 1953 on it appeared in the journal “Kulturpflanze” (pp. 171-227; cf. Fig. 1),
proving the high quality standard of the material in the collections at that time.
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