National Genetic Resources
Program
The United States Congress authorized the establishment of a
National Genetic Resources Program
(NGRP). This program is within the U.S. Department of
Agriculture's Agricultural Research Service
(USDA/ARS). It is the NGRP's
responsibility to acquire, characterize, preserve, document, and
distribute to scientists germplasm of all lifeforms important for
food and agricultural production, including plants, animals,
microbes and invertebrates. Information on this germplasm is
provided to public and private users via the Germplasm
Resources Information Network
(GRIN) web server.
The largest component of the NGRP is the National Plant Germplasm
System
(NPGS), a cooperative effort by public (state and
federal) and private organizations to preserve the genetic
diversity of plants. Data on NPGS accessions of plant genetic
resources are available through GRIN.
GRIN TAXONOMY for PLANTS
provides the organization for NPGS accessions and includes
information on scientific names, common names, classification,
distribution, references, and economic impacts for these and
numerous other plants of actual or potential importance to
agriculture. GRIN TAXONOMY for PLANTS is maintained by
botanists of the
National Germplasm Resources Laboratory (NGRL).
The placement of NGRL within the USDA hierarchy can be seen
here. |
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