For the first time, a European genebank has made all its Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) publicly available. The Centre for Genetic Resources (CGN), The Netherlands, has released its SOPs, which encompass all the procedures that allow a genebank to properly conserve and distribute germplasm, from selection, acquisition, multiplication and viability testing to documentation, information, characterization, evaluation, duplication and distribution.
Achieving consensus within the plant genetic resources community on quality standards and procedures is vital for safeguarding germplasm for future generations and ensuring its availability to current users. The EU-funded project PRO-GRACE aims to provide European genebanks with the knowledge and procedures to properly and efficiently conserve plant genetic resources by creating, inter alia, minimum quality standards and a certification system.
In this context, sharing and making current genebank procedures accessible is critical to building reciprocal trust. CGN is leading by example by sharing all its SOPs.
According to Theo van Hintum, CGN’s Head of Plant Genetic Resources, “With these documents, CGN gives complete transparency regarding the reality of its genebank. As you will see, it is far from perfect. We hope this material will help others in setting up their quality management systems, and providing transparency regarding their genebank operations. We also hope that it will start discussions and generate constructive feedback regarding our methods helping us to improve. In the end, we all want to conserve plant genetic resources as efficiently as possible, for future generations, and provide access to these resources for the current generation of users.”
The SOPs are available on the AEGIS website. AEGIS, the European Genebank Integrated System, is a platform connecting European genebanks under a common system for the long-term conservation and accessibility of unique accessions of plant genetic resources. Through its quality management system AQUAS, it promotes a set of policies, processes and procedures to be followed by all members of AEGIS to ensure an appropriate quality of the activities.
Consult the CGN SOPs on AEGIS website.