Scientists will analyze the preservation of plant genetic resources, a key aspect for food in Latin America

In a seminar organized by INIA Quilamapu -scheduled for Tuesday, August 16-, researchers from Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico will address, via zoom, the need to safeguard the continent’s plant germplasm in order to guarantee over time, the existence of crops for food purposes.

INIA Communications.- Germplasm or plant genetic resources are concepts used by researchers who ensure the protection of all types of plant species, such as plants and seeds, in order to study them and use them as a reservoir for the future. The purpose is to re-cultivate them when necessary or extract from them, by natural methods, characteristics that can be transferred to new varieties in crops of potatoes, rice, wheat, corn, legumes, vegetables, among many others.

“The conservation of germplasm is crucial because from it we find the variants that are necessary to solve problems in agriculture, such as the appearance of pests and diseases, and the presence of droughts, floods, frosts and high temperatures,” said the researcher and curator of the Plant Genetic Resources Bank of INIA Quilamapu, Gerardo Tapia.

The professional added that the cultivation conditions are not even in time and they are mutating, so to face them, it is necessary to resort to germplasm, since “the variants that may be needed later are stored in it.” In this sense, he highlighted the complexity of living systems, for which it is necessary to “understand much more how living systems such as plants work to find answers to problems.”

Tapia explained that germplasm is the basis for the genetic improvement of agricultural crops, since, from them, new varieties can be generated that are capable of generating food in more extreme climatic conditions.

In this sense, the researcher highlighted the international seminar “Strategies for the conservation and projections of the use of plant genetic resources in Latin America” ​​that will be held, via zoom, on Tuesday, August 16. It will highlight the importance of preserving such important species for human consumption as potatoes, beans and corn.

The theme will be addressed by seven scientists from Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Mexico, a meeting that can be followed freely by entering the link cutt.ly/4LTKsx8.