Plant Genetic Resources

Plant Genetic Resources (PGR) are defined as “living material containing genes with direct or potential value for humanity”, including varieties or landraces of cultivated plants, breeding and genetic lines or related wild plant species.

Plant genetic resources important for food and agriculture are mostly stored in gene banks or in national research centres in the form of seeds as ex situ, in in vitro culture, or in the form of live plants in a field collection. Their primitive forms and wild related species are partly stored in gene banks and partly protected through regular in situ monitoring.

In the Czech Republic, there is systematic work with PGR and their conservation supported by the Ministry of Agriculture via the National Programme on Conservation and Utilization of Plant Genetic Resources and Agrobiodiversity.