New seeds from three gene banks in October

NordGens Fredrik Olsson bring seed boxes, actually packed by himself in Alnarp, Sweden, into the Seed Vault.

The deposit from CIAT consisted of bean and forage species. The bean collection comprised 881 seed samples and the forage collection consisted of 396 accessions, in total representing 135 different species and subspecies originating from 82 different countries.

CIP works mainly with potatoes and other tuber crops, and the deposited samples are divided into three part collections; Collection of Andean Roots and Tubers Crops (244 samples), Wild Potato Collection (420 samples) and Wild Sweetpotato Collection (47 samples). The genotypes originate from 15 different countries.

Nordic seeds

The NordGen deposit consists of 76 different species, both vegetables, forages and cereals. NordGen possess a valuable barley (Hordeum) collection, that is frequently demanded for research and breeding purposes. NordGen is working systematically on duplicating the collection in the Seed Vault, and at this occasion almost 1900 accessions of 26 different species were copied  in the Seed Vault. Among other crops the NordGen deposit included vegetables as onions, spinach, lettuce and Brassicas, and forages as grasses and clovers.

The ten seed boxes from the three institutes were taken into the Seed Vault on Tuesday the 17th of October.