Partners Within the United States

The National Plant Germplasm System is a cooperative effort by public (State and Federal) and private organizations.  There are about 24 locations in the country where plants of the national collection are maintained, evaluated and exchanged.

The National Animal Germplasm System, also a cooperative effort, is in its early stages of development.

The National Microbial System is based in Ithaca, Peoria and Beltsville, MD.

The National Invertebrate Program is also based in Beltsville, MD.

The Plant Diseases and Research Unit (PDRU) works with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), located in Beltsville, MD.

Partners Outside the United States

International Partnership to Develop a Global Plant Genebank Information System

The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and Bioversity International are partnering with the Global Crop Diversity Trust to develop a powerful but easy-to-use, Internet-based information management system for the world's plant genebanks.

The nucleus of the system will be ARS's existing Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), a database that already houses information about the more than 480,000 accessions (distinct varieties of plants) in ARS’s National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS). In addition to serving as the information backbone of the NPGS, GRIN has been adopted by Canada’s national genebank system as their information management system. ARS has a long-term commitment to maintaining and enhancing GRIN, which it began developing more than 20 years ago.

As more genetic and agricultural data are generated about the wide range of plants preserved in genebanks around the world, the huge amount of information is increasingly difficult to manage and make accessible. This is especially the case for smaller genebanks in the developing world that may lack the capacity and resources to develop their own information management systems.

Now, thanks to the partnership between the Global Crop Diversity Trust, ARS and Bioversity, software upgrades will enable the GRIN system to be used by genebanks of all sizes, making more information about more plants available to researchers. The new system will help genebanks conserve and use precious genetic resources more effectively, and also help researchers, farmers and producers make the best possible use of information.

We currently collaborate with genebanks in countries all around the world.  

We have already provided our software, GRIN (Germplasm Resources Information Network) to the genebank system in Canada. We have already created and provided a smaller version of GRIN (pcGRIN), one that fits on a personal computer, to all of the countries in the Americas, and to some countries in Africa and Asia.