Could maize landraces in the CIMMYT genebank contain transgenes?
Because of threats to diversity in farmers fields, CIMMYT maintains one of the worlds largest collections of maize and wheat seed. We hold these collections in trust for humanity under an agreement with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN. Seed held in trust is conserved for the long term and remains exempt from intellectual property protection. CIMMYT has taken several preventive measures to ensure that the seed of maize landraces stored in our genebank is not transgenic. Our approach for the genebank, like the multi-layered security system of a conventional bank, comprises a series of firewalls, each reinforcing the other, making the introduction of transgenes into the landraces in the genebank unlikely. First, during collection, seed samples are examined for obvious physical indications that they are true landraces and not the descendents of a modern variety. Next, the seed samples undergo molecular characterization, which means that their genetic makeup is analyzed for
