Collecting European land-races and development of European gene banks-historical remarks

Abstract

Plant breeding in Europe began in the 19th century by selection from land-races. It was recognized very early that land-races in Europe vanished from cultivation both by improved farming techniques and spread of new cultivars particularly after rediscovery ofMendel's laws. E. vonProskowetz and F.Schindler were probably the first to draw attention, in 1890, to the valuable characters of land-races and the dangers for future plant breeding following from their disappearance. Unfortunately, the following repeated appeals for the preservation of European land-races had only little results. The first description of “gene bank activities” was given by E. vonProskowetz. The concept of a gene bank was realized for the first time by N. I.Vavilov at the then Institute of Plant Industry in Leningrad. Gene banks in Socialist European countries were established mainly in the years after World War II for the benefit of plant breeding and its activities stimulated by N. I.Vavilov's ideas. In other European countries gene banks started their activities mainly during the past ten/fifteen years as a result of wide discussions and proposals of EUCARPIA since 1960. Some of them are related to programmes of the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR), e.g., to its Mediterranean Germ-plasm Programme. At present, efforts are being made by the EUCARPIA Gene Bank Committee and the FAO/UNDP/IBPGR European Cooperative Programme for Crop Genetic Resources to establish relations of close co-operation between the European national (and regional) gene banks and their networks.