Schriften zu Genetischen Ressourcen - Genres

A. OMELCHENKO, S. ALEXANIAN, S. HARRER and A. SERBIN
percentage of released cultivars bred on the basis of VIR collections is 45% of all
cultivars released nation-wide, with 77.7% of all potato cultivars, 66.1% of new
cultivars of grain crops, 54.7% of legumes, and 50% of vegetables.
Primary evaluation helped to identify about 4,000 sources of valuable breeding
characters. Genetic investigations localised 77 sources including 27 sources of
resistance to the pathogens of wheat, barley, oats, peas, etc., and 9 sources of
earliness in oats, maize and sunflower.
The collection is not only used for national benefit, but also in the best interests of the
international community.
VIR collaborates with the ex-USSR republics and continues to supply plant materials
at requests from breeders. From 1996 through 2000, these countries received over
14,000 samples of various crops. In recent years, pursuant to the CBD, many
countries have displayed interest in repatriation of their own PGR.
VIR has established efficient cooperation with more than 40 countries of the world,
e.g. joint projects with the Centre for Genetic Resources, The Netherlands (CGN),
the German Centre for Documentation and Information in Agriculture (ZADI,
Germany), and the Nordic Gene Bank (NGB, Sweden).
Since its establishment in 1894, VIR has accumulated impressive quantities of data
associated with plant germplasm held in its genebank. The largest part of these data
have been recorded on cards and in paper reports. During the last years, this
information became gradually computerised. But there was still a limited availability of
data for people outside the institute.
The next stage, which has already started, will be modification of the Vavilov Global
Collection Information and Documentation System to give users better opportunity to
access and use data on the largest and most important crop collections.
As a result of a joint project between the VIR and the Information Centre Genetic
Resources (IGR, now: Information Centre for Biological Diversity, IBV) at ZADI in
Bonn, the VIR Information System (http://www.genres.de/vir/) has been developed, to
provide this valuable information for everybody via internet.
Following the most recent update, the system now provides information on the
structure and history of the Institute, examples of VIR’s scientific work, the list of
WWW Libraries and Biological Journals, and one can find Internet addresses for
some Russian scientific organisations in agriculture. For each department and
experimental station there is a short description available, including names and
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