Term

Expansion/Explanation

Access

Availability of options to (any or a combination) retrieve, open, read, edit and use a pre-compiled information. Information access covers many issues such as copyright, open source, privacy, and security.

Access to information on plant genetic resources goes beyond just any information. The second realm is sovereignty over plant genetic resources including the associated information and hence possible regulation of access.

Accession

Any single entity of germplasm conserved as an independent entry. An accession will have a unique identity and associated information required for its management and use.

Agronomic evaluation

Agronomic evaluation entails the process of field cultivation of germplasm to record specific traits contributing to usefulness of plants for food, fodder, fuel, fiber, etc.

AKMU

Agricultural Knowledge Management Unit (previously ARIS, Agricultural Research Information System) of NBPGR is a facility created to develop and manage ICT driven technology and information dissemination systems for quick, efficient and cost-effective delivery of PGR related information to stake holders.

Biological status

Genetic nature of the accession which decides it’s probable origin, minimum sample size, how the material is managed for conservation and regeneration as well as ownership issues. Examples of biological status are improved cultivar, landrace, genetic stock, wild, traditional or farmers variety, released cultivar, primitive cultivar, breeding line, parental line, variety, elite lines and clonal selection.

Characterization

The science and technology involved in generating information on descriptors that enable a quick and easy discrimination between accessions. In addition, characterization may include a limited number of additional traits thought desirable by a consensus of users of the particular crop.

Collector

A person with adequate skills and knowledge of a plant species who can collect new germplasm accessions for conservations and use.

Collector number

A first information ID given by the plant collector to a sample for its identity till such time that it is recognized as a germplasm accession and assigned a genebank accession number.

Conservers

A person, family or community that conserves the genetic diversity of one or more plant species over generations such that it is not lost forever.

It is worthwhile to note that the sources of greatest germplasm diversity tend to be the poor, isolated, and often-marginal areas in the developing world, and the farmers who usually conserve the most diverse traditional crop germplasm are likely to be the poorest.

Cultivar

A genotype (or a group of very similar genotypes) of a plant that has been created or selected intentionally and maintained through cultivation. A single plant is not a cultivar: a cultivar is a group of individual plants which collectively is distinct from any other, which is uniform in its overall appearance and which remains stable in its attributes.

Cultivars include (i) intentional or accidental hybrids in cultivation, (ii) selection from existing cultivar, (iii) selection from a wild population and maintained by continued propagation.

Cultivators

A person who cultivates crops. In some economies, cultivator is usually the owner of farm land but not so in others. Cultivators are often considered as selectors as well as conservers of plant genetic resources.

Custodian

NBPGR is a nodal agency to collect and conserve the plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. NBPGR does not claim the ownership over the plant genetic resources conserved in various forms. The plant genetic resources belong to communities from where they are collected with an objective of creating a common good. Therefore NBPGR is only the custodian of the resources.

It is important to note that no other entity also can claim ownership of the germplasm which is the sovereign property of India.

Database

A structured collection of data such as passport, characterization, import etc. in such a way that curating, updating, collating, editing and retrieving are systematically carried out.

Descriptor

A set of plant traits that are generally highly heritable, easily recorded and are equally expressed in all environments. Descriptors are employed for characterization of genetic resources.

EC Number

Every imported germplasm accession is assigned a national identifier number Exotic Collection number or EC number which remains unchanged.

Evaluation

E. Evaluation descriptors: Many of the descriptors in this category are susceptible to environmental difference but are generally useful to crop improvement and others may involve complex biochemical or molecular characterization. They include yield, agronomic performance, stress susceptibilities and biochemical and cytological traits.

Exotic

A non-indigenous or non-native genotype, population or species introduced into a new location outside its native distributional range by deliberate or accidental human activity.

Genebank

Genebank is a repository to conserve germplasm collections ex situ. Genebank can be a seed bank, a tissue culture repository, a cryo-bank or a field gene bank or often a combination of them.

NBPGR houses the Indian National Genebank and conserves nearly 0.4 million accessions using all the above methods as per the need of the species.

Genetic

Relating to genes and heredity. In PGR management, genetic characterization (understanding the hereditary behaviour and regulation of traits) is carried out by field evaluation, biochemical evaluation as well as DNA marker based assays.

Germplasm

It is a collection of genetic resources for a given plant species. Germplasm collections are maintained either as seeds or as vegetative propagules or as live specimens in the field genebank.

ICAR

Indian Council for Agricultural Research

IC Number

Every indigenously collected accession is assigned a national identifier number Indigenous Collection number or IC number which remains unchanged.

Indigenous

A native and naturally occurring genotype, population or species within its original distributional range. Connotations are that there is no human intervention in its occurrence and distribution, and expectation of natural variability.

NARS

National Agricultural Research System of India

NBMGR

National Board for the Management of Genetic Resources

NBPGR

National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources

Origin

Passport

Information relating to any germplasm accession including accession number (including other identifiers), attributes describing the origin (country of origin, collection site, collection expedition, donor, etc.), and botanical classification (scientific name, taxonomic system, crop, regeneration method, etc.).

PGR

Plant Genetic Resources

PGRFA

Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture

Portal

A web portal is a web site that brings information from diverse sources in a unified way. The user can search for information as well as configure which ones to display.

Scientific name

A scientific name (also called binominal nomenclature) is a formal name of any living organism composed of two parts, both of which use Latin grammatical forms, although they can be based on words from other languages. The first part of the name identifies the genus to which the species belongs; the second part identifies the species within the genus.

Utilization

Employment of genetic variability available in the genebank into the crop improvement programmes (breeding).

It is important to note that conservation efforts are not matched by utilization, indicating that the collections are not being used to their full potential. Deployment of fewer and closely related genotypes in breeding is contrary to the purpose of collecting a large number of germplasm accessions, and could result in vulnerability of cultivars to pests and diseases.

Variety

An entity represented by a genetically uniform plant population developed for cultivation. It also indicates a legal term for identification and protection.