Preservation capacity enhanced at China's seed bank for cold-region crops

HARBIN -- The expansion of China's only seed bank for cold-region crops has been completed recently to raise its seed preservation capacity from 80,000 to 200,000 samples.

As the genes of most plants are contained in their seeds, germplasm resources have become the carriers of the genetic information of plants. A seed bank serves as the most important facility for preserving such resources.

The crop germplasm bank, located in China's northernmost province of Heilongjiang, has preserved more than 50,000 samples of various crops. Over 2,000 samples of wild soybeans, a second-class protected plant in China, have been stored in the bank, accounting for 25 percent of the nation's total.

After the expansion, three mid-term storehouses and two short-term ones were added to the crop germplasm bank, said Shen Zhongbao, director of the preservation and utilization center of crop germplasm resources in Heilongjiang. The transformation of resource management to informatization and digitalization has also been realized.

This year, the resource bank will continue to collect and preserve 20,000 samples of crop germplasm resources, including wild soybeans, soybeans, corn and rice.