Information Center for Plant Genetic Resources
The Information center at IPGR „K. Malkov“ is responsible for the registration and documentation of the accessions stored in the National Seed Genebank located in Sadovo.
The Information Center for Plant Genetic Resources was established in 1982 and was completely renovated in 2021. Its activity is in accordance with the international standard for plant gene fund documentation of FAO/Bioversity (2017), following the priorities for free access to the conserved ex situ collections in European genebanks and maintaining a global system for germplasm exchange under the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA, 2009) and the Nagoya Protocol, Japan (CBD, 2011).
The enrichment of the genebank collections is a result from the work activities of the crop curators of the Department „Plant Genetic Resources“.
Accessions from foreign genebanks were introduced through international exchange. Expeditions are conducted in different geographical areas of the country and valuable local varieties, populations and crop wild relatives are collected. New varieties of Bulgarian origin from the specialized breeding institutes in the country are stored in the fund of the genebank.
The electronic database in Microsoft Access, type „register“, contains the following passport information: taxonomic description, catalogue number, date of acquisition, country of origin, donor of the accession, collection site, ecological-geographical characteristic, biological status, which is used for the identification of the accession at the different levels of storage – long-term (base), medium-term (exchange collection), short-term (working), in vitro and/or field collection, botanical garden. The taxonomic description of the crops is under the nomenclature of USDA (GRIN, 2015).
During the period 2020-2023, according to the BGPLANTNET project http://delc.space/genbank/ , financed by the Bulgarian Science Fund of the Ministry of Education, an intelligent information system for managing all processes related to conservation, documentation, characterization and evaluation of plant genetic resources is integrated in IPGR-Sadovo.
https://genbank.uni-plovdiv.net/login
Entry into the Plant Genetic Resources Documentation System
Under the National Scientific Program „Healthy Foods for a Strong Bioeconomy and Quality of Life“ (NNP-FOOD) of the Ministry of Education, an electronic platform for local plant genetic resources was created, including passport and characterization data for accessions collected by expeditions in the country. The digital catalogue includes information on local varieties of economic inportant and traditional crops in Bulgaria.
Digital catalogue of local plant genetic resources:
https://plantsdigcatalog.agriacad.bg/
Visit the catalogue
Guide for using the digital catalogue of local plant genetic resources:
https://plantsdigcatalog.agriacad.bg/images/help.pdf
Националната генбанка в ИРГР Садово е номинирана от Европейската програма по РГР (ECPGR) http://www.ecpgr.cgiar.org/ като отговорен център за България в Европейския каталог за растителни генетични ресурси – EURISCO (http://eurisco.ecpgr.org).
The National Genebank in IPGR Sadovo has been nominated by the European Program on Plant Genetic Resources (ECPGR) http://www.ecpgr.cgiar.org/ as a responsible center for Bulgaria in the European Catalogue of Plant Genetic Resources – EURISCO (http://eurisco.ecpgr.org).
IPGR-Sadovo maintains the richest collection of plant genetic resources in Southeast Europe. The Bulgarian collection (NI BGR) includes passport data for 69,931 accessions, including accessions from BGR001/IPGR Sadovo – 65,511 acc., from BGR029/DZI General Toshevo – 3,857 acc. and BGR005/IREMK Kazanlak – 563 acc. The collection is distributed in 532 genera and 1927 plant species. 18,231 accessions are with Bulgarian origin.
In 2009 IPGR Sadovo signed a Memorandum of Understanding for establishing of European Genebank Integrated System (AEGIS). Under the agreement, IPGR Sadovo is involved in building a „virtual“ European Genebank, covering a European collection of „unique local germplasm“ (http://aegis.cgiar.org).
The Bulgarian Genebank sent a total of 2,119 local accessions, 933 acc. in 2014 and 1,186 acc. in 2022 to the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, Norway for safety duplication.
The Genebank in Sadovo carries out partner exchange with over 100 genebanks, botanical gardens and international centers for plant genetic resources in the world.
