What is plant germplasm?
Plant germplasm is the living tissue from which new plants can be grown. Germplasm is usually seed, or it can be another plant part — a stem, a leaf, or pollen, for example, or even just a few cells that can be cultured into a whole plant. Plant germplasm contains the genetic information for the plant’s hereditary makeup. What is the Canadian Plant Germplasm System? Canada’s Plant Germplasm System is a network of centres and people dedicated to preserving the genetic diversity of crop plants, their wild relatives and plants present and unique in the Canadian biodiversity. The system plays a significant part of Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s commitment to the Canadian Biodiveristy Strategy in response to the Convention on Biological Diversity. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada appointed the first Plant Gene Resources officer, and established Plant Gene Resources of Canada (PGRC) in 1970. Until early 1998 it was located on the Central Experimental Farm in Ottawa, but moved to a moder
