The German Fruit Genebank, a decentral network for sustainable preservation of fruit genetic resources

Abstract

The preservation of fruit genetic resources is the basis for ensuring a sustainable fruit production in Germany. The preservation of fruit cultivars has a long-lasting tradition in Germany, which reaches back to the early decades of the 20^th century. Since that time, a multitude of cultivars of different fruit crop species are preserved in public and private germplasm collections. However, the loss of individual cultivars can not be excluded using such form of preservation. The German Fruit Genebank has been recently established to minimize the risk of losing fruit genetic resources. The German Fruit Genebank is a decentral network, which is aimed on the coordination of different germplasm collections in Germany. The work will be organized in species specific networks (e.g. apple network, strawberry network etc.). Preservation guidelines for each fruit species will be developed within the species specific networks. The first three networks for straw­berry, cherries, and apple recently have taken up their activities. The establishment of networks for further fruit crops has been scheduled.