Genetic resources – Classification, Diversity, Manipulation, and Preservation

Learning Objectives
 Understand the scientific system used to classify and name plants.
 Understand the necessity of maintaining genetic diversity in natural ecosystems,
domesticated plant species, and crop systems.
 Understand the concepts of natural selection, plant breeding, and genetic engineering.
Plant Scientific Classification
Plant Taxonomy
Classification and scientific naming of plants based on their relationships.
Originally based on similar physical characteristics, especially flowers.
Now, more and more based on evolutionary relationships based on DNA analysis.
Carl Linneaus: botanist credited with “fathering” the discipline of taxonomy. The “L” after
many scientific names refers to Linneaus who was the first one to classify them.
Taxonomic groups or taxa used in H&CS 200:
Domain, Kingdom, Phylum/Division, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species
Classification System
To avoid confusion and to allow for clear communication across all languages, a rigid naming
system has been created called Binomial Nomenclature or scientific name.
Regardless of the native language of an area, the scientific name of a species is the same
everywhere.
Okra’s classification is used as the example
Domain: eukarotes
Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum/Division: Anthophyta
Class: Dicotyledones
Order: Malvales
Family: Malvaceae
Genus: Abelmoschus
Specific Epithet: esculentus
(Species: Abelmoschus esculentus)
Protocol for Binomial Nomenclature
Genus specific epithet common name
Acer rubrum red maple
or Acer rubrum
Zea mays corn
or Zea mays
Always capitalize the genus, always underline or italicize the genus and specific epithet

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Kingdoms connection to plants
Archaebacteria Not applicable (found in hot, thermal springs and ocean vents)
Eubacteria plant diseases, beneficials
Protista algae in/on soil
Fungi plant diseases, beneficials
Plantae crop plants and weeds
Animalia pests/herbivores/pollinators

The 12 Plant Phyla and economic importance

Seedless plants species type and economic importance
Hepatophyta 6000 liverworts: weeds in plant nursery
Anthocerophyta 100 hornworts
Bryophyta 9500 mosses: lawn weeds and sphagnum (peat)
Psilophyta 15 whisk ferns: greenhouse weeds
Lycophyta 1000 clubmosses: a few ornamentals
Sphenophyta 16 horsetails: weeds
Pterophyta 11000 ferns: ornamentals and some weeds

Seed species type and economic importance

Coniferophyta 560 conifers: forest and ornamental
Cycadophyta 140 cycads: tropical/indoor ornamental
Ginkgophyta 1 maidenhair tree: ornamental
Psilophyta 15 whisk ferns: greenhouse weeds
Gnetophyta 70 Ephedra, etc.: medicinal
Anthophyta 23500 flowering plants: crops, weeds, etc.

Often, the plants used by humans are categorized by their Class: monocotyledones or
dicotyledones
The monocotyledones (monocots) have one cotyledon, dicotyledones (dicots) have two. There
are other differences, but cotyledon number is easiest to see.
Cotyledons are the ‘leaves’ that are in the seed that provide the seedling with nourishment until it
has time to develop it’s true leaves.
General anatomical differences between monocot and dicot species

Source: biologie.uni-hamburg.de

Many of the other differences are biochemical or physiological. We can use these differences to
our advantage in crop growing, especially in weed control.
80% of world’s calorie intake comes from these 6 crops
Monocots: corn (Zea mays), rice (Oryza sativa), wheat (Triticum aestiva)
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Dicots: white potatoes (Solanum tuberosum),sweet potatoes (Ipomea batatas), cassava
(Manihot esculentum).

Poaceae are the grasses Fabaceae are the beans

Families and species of forage crops.

Older literature usually refers to some families by their old name, but the new name is the correct
version.
Families:
Correct Name Old Name common family name
Asteraceae Compositae aster
Brassicaceae Cruciferae cabbage
Poaceae Graminae grass
Lamiaceae Labiatae mint
Fabaceae Leguminosae bean
Arecacaceae Palmae palm
Apiaceae Umbelliferae carrot

Only a very small number of species are grown as food crops or have other economic
importance. Of the 235,000 flowering plant species, <6,000 are economically important.
Ecologically, though, they are all important.
Although we would like to increase the diversity of crops, especially food crops, the difficulty
with increasing diversity is that most crops suitable for food crops are tropical and cannot be
grown in temperate climates.
Of the 10,000 species native to North America very few have been developed as food crops.
However, there are several ornamental crops that are North American species. Switchgrass and
asters are two of the many native North American species that were developed as ornamentals by

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the Europeans and reintroduced to the U.S. Switchgrass is now being considered as a possible
biofuel source too. Many ornamental trees are native to North America.
Principles of diversity genetics, selection, and breeding as applied to the cultivvation of plants.
The stability of natural ecosystems depends on it having several different species.
Healthy and unhealthy ecosystems can be identified by the amount of diversity and the types of
species present.
The stability of natural ecosystems depends on it having several different species and variability
within species.
Over the years, the genetic variability in crop ecosystems and species has diminished as breeders
selected or bred for specific, desirable traits.
Only those plants exhibited those traits were kept, others were destroyed along with all the
genetic information they carried.
For the past few decades a concerted effort has been underway to preserve seemingly
unimportant genes that are carried in wild relatives of crop species.
Review of the principles of cell division and heredity:
Cell division:
New cells carry same genetic information as parent cell

and have the same number of chromosomes (2n).

New cells carry only half as much genetic

information and chromosome number (1n) from parent cell.

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 Crossing over can create changes in chromosome DNA,

even in homozygous pairs.

Terms and concepts that are commonly used in

genetics
Terms and concepts that are commonly used in genetics.

Homozygous – the genes for a trait are the same on paired chromosomes

Heterozygous – the genes for a trait are different on each chromosome in a pair.
Alleles – the different genes that can be found in the same location on a chromosome.
Genotype – the genetic information in an individual
Phenotype – the characteristics of an individual as the result of gene expression and
environment interactions.
Dominant – the gene that is expressed in a heterozygous situation.
Recessive – a gene that is only expressed when that gene is homozygous.

Genetics of crossing two parents that are homozygous but

for different traits. The F1 generation is all the same in appearance (phenotype) but the genotype

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is heterozygous resulting in differences in eggs and pollen. Y(y) refers to color, G(g) refers to
smooth or hairy surface. The capital letter refers to the dominant trait.
Variability that comes from crossing two siblings from the

same F1 generation. The phenotype number refers to the times a phenotype will appear in all the
16 possible genotypes.
In a large, randomly mating population of F2 individuals, the

9:3:3:1 phenotypes will remain constant through the generations if no selection occurs and no
genetic variation is introduced. (Hardy-Weinberg Law)
Although very few species feed, clothe or entertain us, within those species there exists a large
amount of genetic variation.
Plant diversity and agricultural development.
• When farming started, the human population increased.
• Humans looked for ways to get better yields or quality from the crops to feed the
growing population.
The shift from hunter/gather to farmer had a huge impact on the world.
Farming required the development of ___________.
Land needed per person is _______________ with farming compared to hunting/gathering.
Global population increased because of more ____________ source of food and less dangerous
activities.
Farming may be a high risk occupation, but compared to hunting and gathering it is much safer.

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What lead to the concept and practice of plant breeding?
Most likely the flourishing trash (compost) heap caused an idea (hypothesis) that something in
the trash heap was making the plants grow better.
Along with observing that the growing conditions might be causing better yields, probably came
the idea of saving seed from the best plants to plant for the next season’s crop.
By selecting what they liked, humans gradually created new sub species of plants. In time
science-based breeding techniques were developed.
Sometimes the new or different plants (variations) are the same species. Thevariations of the
species called cultivars (cultivated varieties or cv’s.).
Sometimes you will see crops referred to as varieties (var.). Botanically speaking, varieties are
naturally occurring morphological variants within a species. These variants if desirable can be
selected and to produce plants with consistent and predictable traits.
Wild relatives and ancestors are an important part of breeding programs so we need to know
where to find them.
Vavilov was the Russia botanist who first to tried to identify centers of origin for modern crops.
His findings and those of others give information on where to find wild relatives.
Origins of some important crops:
The Fertile Crescent – wheat, barley, peas, lentils, onions, figs, pears
China – oranges, tea, soybeans
India and Indonesia – rice, banana, coconut, sugar cane
Ethiopia – coffee, millet, okra, sorghum
Central and South America – corn, beans, cotton, squash, sweet potato, potato, tomato,
tobacco, strawberry, cassava, pineapple, rubber
Of the main crops grown in the US, Canada, and Australia, none are native.
European crops are 9% native.
African crops, 12% native.
China-Japan, 37% native.
Latin America, 44% native.
Indochina, 67% native.
Origins of some grasses:
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 Kentucky Bluegrass is a cool season grass that has some strains that are native to the US, but
most are from temperate regions of Eurasia.
Bermudagrass is a warm season grass native to Africa and commonly used in southern US
lawns.
Big bluestem is a native North American grass used for grazing in western states.
Buffalograss is a native N.A. grass used for turf and forage in the south.
Genetic Diversity in the Plants We Grow

Wheat ancestors and relatives. The numbers represent the number of chromosomes in each
species. Notice they are all multiples of 14. This is an example of polyploidy.
Teosinte is a wild relative of corn. Modern breeding was done to try to create what was most
likely a primitive type of domesticated corn by crossing teosinte with domesticated corn.
Ornamental crops, unlike most food and forage crops, have a broad genetic base both among and
within species.
Many genera have been cultivated for 100’s and even 1,000’s of years.
They have been the target of plant explorers since those intrepid folks started tramping the fields
and mountains of the world in search of exotic and beautiful plants.
∗
We know the date of modern discovery and the discoverer of many ornamental plants.
The cultivation of the genus Rosa over several millennia has resulted in 1,000’s of named
cultivars.
Lilies, irises, and tulips are native to Greece and Turkey and there are hundreds of cultivars of
each.
Spiderwort and the Tulip Tree are native to the Eastern U.S.
Beardtongue, coreopsis, and gaillardia are summer flowering plants that are native to Mexico.
Azaleas, hostas, and maples are among the ornamentals that originated in China and Japan.
The common climate characteristics and proximity of N. America and Eastern Asia has resulted
in several genera represented by species on both sides of the Pacific.
The scientific or common name often gives a clue to point of origin.
Non-native plants that came from the same region can be desirable or undesirable.
Plant Breeding with Wild Plant Material

usually, the native populations already knew they were there and were often already using them.

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Many things have to be done when developing a plant discovered in the wild with potential to be
a crop plant:
We have to:
• Get it to perform well in what is most likely an environment different from its native
habitat.
• Get it to produce the part we are interested in prolifically, uniformly, and with high
quality.
• Insure that the plant is not likely to escape and become an invasive species.
Natural selection
Introduction from the wild starts with the natural variation in the wild population to preserve the
breadth of the natural genetic resources.
During the selections process, the best individuals from each generation are chosen.
Through successive generations where selection has taken place, the gene pool becomes more
homozygous (uniform) for the desired traits.
The genetic variation decreases.
This can result in the loss of hidden, but desirable traits such as pest resistance or tolerance of
unusual weather conditions.
Reintroducing lost traits is a very expensive and time-consuming process.
The most dominant U.S. apple, ‘Red Delicious’, came from selection. It was a seedling naturally
descended from the trees that John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed) planted throughout the
midwest in the early 1800’s.
Someone observed that it grew well with little maintenance and produced desirable fruit. The
seedling was selected and the rest is history.
It became the most produced cultivar in the United States. But the germplasm diversity of
commercially grown apples became very small.
With time, ‘Red Delicious’ has fallen out of favor and other apples have become very popular,
thus deepening the commercial apple gene pool again. But to develop the new cultivars,
breeders had to look for native germplasm in Kazakhstan, the apple center of origin to help
deepen the gene pool.
If you like the new apple cultivars, you might want to thank a Kazakhstani fruit farmer for
hanging on to old germplasm!
Selective Breeding
Although selection can produce good plants for commercial use, most of the time now, human
intervention hastens and focuses the process.
Generally all desirable traits are not found in one plant. Have to combine genes from several
plants to get the desired combination.
Difficulty comes when there is little genetic variation so don’t have a whole lot to choose from.
If the variation isn’t in the existing species, may have to go to wild relatives or induce
_______________ to increase variability.

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Review of DNA and what it does and how mutations occur. (If you do not already understand
the relationship of DNA, RNA, and proteins, I strongly recommend you review the detailed
process in a college level biology book)
DNA = long chains of nucleic acids in specific order in a double helix. The nucleic acids are:
adenine (A), thymine (C), guanine (G) and cytosine (C). In the double helix, they pair up A/T
and G/C.
When genes are activated, that portion of the helix opens up and the nucleic acids attract
ribonucleotides (adenine, cytosine, guanine and uracil (U) – which matches up with adenine as
A/U. This process is called transcription.
The string of ribonucleotides that forms is mRNA. mRNA leaves the nucleus.
mRNA matches up with transfer RNA (tRNA).
But it is not a 1;1 match, tRNA has 3 nucleotides that have to match up with a sequence of 3
mRNA nucleotides.
Each tRNA is attached to an amino acid.
The arrangement of the 3 tRNA nucleotides determines which amino acid it is carrying.
As the tRNA joins the mRNA a chain of amino acids is formed (called translation).
This chain is a protein that has its amino acid content determined by the original DNA gene.
Proteins direct all the biochemical activity in an organisms.
The alignment of 3 ribonucleotides with its specific amino acid is the same in all organisms.
Mutations occur when there is a change in the order in which the amino acids assemble.
Mutations are what give us the inestimable array of biodiversity among and within species.
Mutations are sometimes deliberately induced by X-raying plants. The results of inducing
mutations are VERY unpredictable.
Colchicine is a natural chemical from a species of crocus that is often used to induce polyploidy
(a type of mutation) in plants. If you ever use this stuff, be careful, it can cause polyploidy in
yyoouu and your kkiiddss, too!
Remember that polyploidy occurs naturally too. See the wheat picture on page 8.
When done properly and scientifically, breeding can broaden the gene pool compared to
selection.
Genotype vs phenotype variation
Genotype is the genetic makeup.
Phenotype is the interaction of genotype with environment.
Plants with the same genotype can have very different phenotypes when grown in different
environments.
The same genotype can show different phenotypes in different environments, likewise, different
genotypes can express the same phenotype if environments differ.

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A critical part of breeding is to test new var./cv.’s in several different environments to see how
different regional environmental conditions affect desirable traits like productivity.
Heritability
Traits are measured by their heritability.
Heritability = genetic variation ÷ phenotypic variation
Can vary from 0 to 1. The lower the number, the less heritable a trait is and the more difficult it
will be to improve the crop by breeding without inducing variation.
Soybeans are easy to breed for uniform ripening, but it’s been a real pain to improve yield using
breeding techniques.
Lodging (or the tendency for the stem to fall over) is moderately difficult to overcome.

Breeding starts with finding parents that have the desired trait/s.
For example, a great commercial variety is susceptible to a new or new strain of a disease. We
select the commercial variety for production characteristics as one parent and a disease resistant
plant as the other parent. The resulting generation is called F1.

The F1’s are self-pollinated to create the F2

generation.

Then a series of backcrosses and selections is

performed to try to get the desired product.
(Breeding parent to child is not considered to
be incest in plants.)

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The F2 generation from a cross like the one described above is highly variable and none may be
commercially acceptable. But some may exhibit disease resistance.

Find offspring with good disease resistance and backcross them with the commercial parent.
This may have to be done several times to get a disease resistant variety with good commercial
characteristics.
In the past breeding programs like the one just described could take years to develop a cultivar
with the desired traits because plants had to be grown to maturity, crossed with other plants, and
allowed to set seed.
This could take several generations and many, many years.
In breeding, pollen is collected from the male plant and then used to fertilize the female plant.
Care has to be taken to keep the female from receiving unwanted pollen. ( Husbands of
philandering wives have the same issue.)
Using male-fertile plants to produce hybrid seed, means the male parts have to be emasculated
before they mature. Using male-sterile plants that produce seeds but do not produce viable
pollen eliminates this problem. An alternative is protecting the female from unwanted
pollination.
Breeding requires meticulous attention to small details.
Single gene traits are the easiest to breed for.
The more genes involved, the more difficult it is to get everything into a single offspring,
especially if those genes are on separate chromosomes.
In an organism with 3 chromosomes, the possible different gametes in the F1 generation is 8.
For corn, which has 20 chromosomes, the F1 generation has 1,024 possible gene combinations in
its gametes,
The gamete possibilities for the F2 generation is over a million different combinations.
Imagine the combinations possible in humans who have 46 chromosomes.
When crossing over occurs on chromosomes, the number of different gametes that can be
produced increases even more.
Once a breeding program has been started, after careful breeding and several generations, it is
possible to develop a homozygous line from a single, self-pollinating plant.
However, when a population becomes completely or nearly homozygous, reduced vigor often
occurs.

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Hybrid corn in the 70’s was very uniform but very susceptible to a new race of the organism
causing corn blight. The devastating effect of corn blight on the U.S. corn crop in the 1970’s was
the result of a very narrow genetic base in the crop.
Corn breeders had to scramble to introduce blight resistance into the crop. Fortunately, vigor can
often be restored by crossing two different inbred lines.
In the case of corn, male-sterile mutants made those crosses much easier to do. The seed is
formed on the male-sterile parent and is all genetically identical though heterozygous.

When hybrid seed was first introduced, farmers nearly rioted in anger. Any ideas why?
Our understanding of genes and DNA, and the ability to use molecular markers to see if a gene is
present has sped up the selection process. In most cases, plants no longer have to be taken to
maturity to see if they have a trait.
Each column represents a different plant. The marks in each

column indicate different genes. We can look for plants with the genes we want and keep those
plants.
They do have to be taken to maturity though to produce seed. But you only have to do that with
the plants you know carry the trait.
When the desired traits in a plant cannot be passed on by sexual reproduction, then vegetative or
∗
asexual propagation often can be used to create clones .
Cases where vegetative propagation is used:
• the parents are highly heterozygous and it is not likely a homozygous population
can be created
• the parent is sterile and cannot produce seed.

A clone is a population with identical genetic makeup.

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With vegetative propagation, stock or “mother” (they do not have to be female) plants produce
cuttings which are rooted and grow into complete plants. The cuttings all have the same genetic
information as the parent and when each new plant produces cuttings, those also have the same
genetic information. This uniformity continues unless there is a mutation.
Whether sexual or asexual, progress in plant breeding went hand in hand with the need for more
fertilizers and pesticides.
Sustainable agriculture requires that we consider the need for inputs and the problems of
unintended outputs.
By increasing the need for chemical inputs are we developing sustainable systems?
Sustainability is now a part of the evaluation process of selecting new crop species and cultivars.
Genetic Engineering and Crops
The discovery of the structure of the DNA molecule by Francis Crick, James Watson, and
Rosalind Franklin led to the ability to identify, isolate, and transfer genes.
Plant breeding has been going on long before the discovery of DNA and how it functions.
However, with our very recent understanding of DNA came the discovery of a way to move
genes from one species to another. Until then plant breeders could only work with traits found in
closely related (sexually compatible) species.
Genetic engireering has ‘transformed’ plant breeding. We even call the process transformation.
Transformation is the incorporation of ‘foreign’ genes (DNA) into an organism. Foreign genes
are those that come from organisms that are not naturally able to mate with the parent organism.
When that gene is expressed, the foreign trait will appear in the transformed organism.
Now genes from any organism can potentially be put in a plant. But it isn’t as simple as many
people think it is.
It is not easy to transform organisms with foreign genes and it is even harder to get the organism
to express the trait.
Gene expression of a trait is the result of the action of the protein (enzyme) produced by that
gene.
Transformed organisms are often called:
• Genetically engineered organisms,
• Biologically (bio) engineered organisms,
• Genetically modified organisms (GMO’s).

The two most widely used foreign genes in crops code for:
Bt toxin - a protein produced by the Bacillus thuringiensis bacterium that destroys the gut lining
of caterpillars.
Glyphosate resistance - generated by an enzyme (protein) that enables a plant to survive when

sprayed with the herbicide glyphosate (Round-Up ). Glyphosate inhibits the production of EPSP
synthase which is needed for the synthesis of some amino acids.
The foreign gene can be introduced into an organism by a biological vector (carrier) or a
Physical method.
Both are used in plant biotechnology.
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The biological vector works best for dicotyledonous plants.
The physical method works best for monocots.
The biological vector most often used in plants is an Agrobacterium that infects plants, often
causing a gall.
The bacterium has a piece of circular DNA called a Ti plasmid.
It injects the plasmid into the cells of the plants it infects.
By inserting a new gene into the plasmid before injection, the new gene goes into the plant at the
time of injection.

A promoter and a marker are also inserted into the plasmid DNA along with the desired gene.
The promoter causes the new gene to be expressed when desired and the marker is used to
make sure the gene has been inserted.
Physical (mechanical) methods also can be used to inject foreign DNA directly into plant cells.
Although there are several ways to do the insertion, particle bombardment (gene gun) is the most
frequently used.
Whether the process is biological or physical, only individual cells are transformed. The cells
(protoplasts) have to be separated and grown into complete new plants. Usually it is not possible
to tell by looking which cells have the new DNA and which do not.
By using an easily seen marker such as antibiotic _________________, we can select the cells
that have been transformed. A plant that shows it has the marker (doesn’t die when exposed to
the antibiotic) most likely has the desired gene too. The ‘marked’ plants are grown and tested for
the desired trait.

Luciferase, the enzyme that makes fireflies glow, is another marker that is used. Where the plant
“glows” the luciferase gene is being expressed along with any gene inserted with it .

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Once the we know we have the DNA for the desired trait in a plant, we can breed that plant
conventionally or propagate it vegetatively to increase numbers and, in the case of breeding, get
the gene into closely related species.
Bt resistant corn and cotton and glyphosate-resistant soybeans now account for much of the

acreage of those crops in the U.S.

Because of the cost of transformation, it is not likely that minor crops, including almost all
ornamentals will be transformed in the foreseeable future.
Biotechnology works best by far with single gene traits. For traits that are determined by
multiple genes, biotechnology is not expected to play a role for a long time, if ever.
Today. GMO’s are one of the most controversial issues in the world. A couple of websites that
look at both sides of the issue.
http://www.purdue.edu/agbiotech/whobenefits.html
http://www.fao.org/english/newsroom/focus/2003/gmo8.htm
Glyphosate-resistant bentgrass has been very recently developed for lawns and golf courses and
was ready for introduction fall 2004 but discovery that the gene may have escaped into a wild
grass population from a test site put the release on hold, perhaps for a very long time. The
controversy still continues in 2006.
Although food safety is sometimes the issue, most concern for GMO’s comes from fear that a
foreign gene will ‘leak’ into a native population and create unforeseen problems.
The less closely related a GMO is to the native plant populations, the less likely the gene is
to escape. In the case of the turfgrass, the gene was found 50 miles away in a native population.
Genetic contamination from modified corn has been reported in ancestral and wild types, e.g.
Zea mays in Peru and Mexico.
On the other hand, the lack of __________________ of most domestic plants (their need for
TLC, tender loving cultivation), to survive actually helps to control the escape of genes.
Domesticated plants cannot compete well in the wild for limited resources so they die out, taking
any foreign genes to their grave with them.
In the U.S., because very few of our major crop plants are _____________ the risk of gene
escape by GMO’s breeding with native species is lower than in areas where the crops are native.
Crop System Diversity
As important as genetic diversity is, so is crop system diversity.
Like a natural ecosystem, the more diversity in a crop system the healthier and stronger it is.

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Agriculture polycyltures are diverse but are less efficient to grow, maintain, and harvest than
monocultures.
Monocultures however leave a lot of niches open that are filled by unwanted niche species,
i.e.____________.
Monocultures abound in agriculture. Though easy to plant, grow, and harvest, these systems
often are vulnerable to insects, diseases, and weed infestations.
Not only is a monoculture low on species diversity, it is also very low in genetic diversity.
You’ve already learned of the corn blight problem in the U.S. If you are of Irish heritage,
chances are your ancestors came to the U.S. to avoid starving in the Irish potato famine of the
1800’s.
A monoculture of potato production opened the door to crop devastation of a type of late blight
introduced from the European continent into Ireland.
Forages are often planted as a mix of legumes and a grass to give better production during a
drought.
When choosing species to mix in a polyculture for a farm, choose species that are known to
adapt well to environmental conditions of the site.
Cannot always do this in urban agriculture. Human preference often overrides ecological
soundness.
Mixed groupings of ornamental plants will mostly likely stay attractive under a much wider
range of weather and other environmental factors than large blocks of single species/cultivars.
But some clients will still want mass plantings of the identical plants.
Permaculture is the term used to describe small scale, mixed annual (die after one reproductive
cycle) and perennial (repeat reproductive cycle indefinitely) crop production.
This concept is being promoted for world-wide, including U.S., adoption.
Not new, many parts of the world have long included mixing several annuals and perennials in
their cropping systems.
Agroforestry, a system that is being adopted in tropical areas, combines trees, annual, and
perennial crop production to maintain soil fertility and crop health with low fertilizer and
pesticide input.
There is a world-wide effort to preserve plant germplasm (genes). The USDA National Plant
Germplasm Service has Centers located throughout the US (including the OSU campus) to
maintain a collection of genes (germplasm) to preserve genetic variable.
Plant breeders from all over the world can receive this germplasm at no charge to include in their
breeding programs.

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