dynaversity.eu/wp-content/uplo...sity_Manual2.pdf
The DYNAVERSITY project was funded by the EU and ended in April, 2021. There were a number of great outcomes that were preserved (for now) on their website.
Conserving germplasm in community seed banks is important for making certain plant varieties and mixtures that are not easily available on the commercial market accessible to a community of interested users, as explored in Manual 1 of this series. However, the value of any collection, including those which are maintained in a community setting, is strongly related to the quantity, type and quality of the information associated with it and to its accessibility to users, who are in this way enabled to make informed choices, based on their specific needs and preferences. Having a supply of up to date, accurate and reliable information on the conserved accessions is of vital importance also for the efficient operation of the CSB itself, such as: setting priorities, planning activities, and managing resources. An example is germplasm regeneration, which we talked about in Manual 1: since not all accessions can be regenerated each season, priorities have to be set, through questions such as:
- Which samples must, at all costs, be regenerated?
- Which regenerations are less urgent?
- What are the consequences of not regenerating certain samples?
Information about seed stock levels, the viability of seeds and how frequently particular accessions are requested and distributed help answering these questions and making the most appropriate decisions about regeneration. Depending on the size, nature and scope of different CSBs, a documentation system may be used simply for information storage and retrieval, or for additional processes such as data maintenance (updating existing data), data processing and analysis, and data exchange.