Abstract:

Crop germplasm resources are a key component of biodiversity, and can serve as a material basis for crop breeding and agroproduction. For a long time, ununified standards, widely-scattered germplasm storage, and weak information network infrastructure have restricted the sharing and utilization of crop germplasm resources in China. In order to overcome these problems, the concept and architecture of a program called the National Crop Germplasm Resources Infrastructure (NCGRI) were proposed. The NCGRI is a virtual organization which brings together crop germplasm resources from the national long-term genebank, the national duplicate genebank, the national medium-term genebank, the national field genebank, and the national germplasm information center. The principles and methods for establishing a technical standard system were elaborated. Complete with descriptor lists, a data dictionary, and data quality control standards, the group established a technical standard system for 110 crops. A protocol for sample sharing that is driven by information sharing was put forward. The national crop germplasm resources database with 390,000 accessions and the Chinese Crop Germplasm Resources Information Network (http://www.cgris.net/) were established as repositories. Finally five service-modes including routine service, field display services, targeted services, demand for services, and guide services were created.

Key words: crop, germplasm resources, database, information sharing, biodiversity