
Gene Bank at the ParkBy Linda
McGraw November 4, 1998What do national parks and forests have to do with the French fries future
generations will eat? Maybe more than anyone can imagine today. South America is the potatos center of origin and its center of
genetic diversity. But geneticist John B. Bamberg at the
Agricultural Research Service has fresh
respect for a pair of wild spuds-- Solanum jamesii and S.
fendleri--found in state and national parks in the Southwest. The parkland plants serve as free-living genetic reservoirs. They may harbor
agriculturally valuable traits that might go unnoticed for decades until needed
by crop breeders. And the plants genetic stock may rise the longer they
can persist. In the wild, they can continue changing genetically in response to
attack by insects, diseases, animals, drought and fire. The southwestern tubers genetic change has been confirmed. Analyses by
Bamberg and colleagues show that recent collections of these plants have
genetic fingerprints different from those of samples collected decades earlier
at the same sites. The wild plants grow in Coronado National Forest in Arizona,
Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado, Lincoln National Forest in New Mexico,
and other parks and forests. Bamberg works at ARS Plant Introduction Station in Sturgeon Bay, Wis.
There, the U.S. Potato
Genebank contains nearly 5,000 samples of more than 150 potato species.
Plant breeders and biotechnologists can tap into the Sturgeon Bay treasure
chest for genetic traits to improve upon todays potato cultivars. The researchers aim to preserve genetic diversity in two ways: ex situ
and in situ. Ex situ refers to the gene banks artificial
environment; in situ is where plants grow in nature. A story about in
situ wild potatoes, grapes and onions in the U.S. will appear in the
December Agricultural Research magazine of ARS, the chief scientific arm
of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Scientific contact: John B. Bamberg, ARS Plant Introduction Station,
4312 Highway 42, Sturgeon Bay, WI 54235, phone (920) 743-5406, fax (920)
743-1080, [email protected].
U.S. Department of Agriculture | |