YURIEV PLANT PRODUCTION INSTITUTE
of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine

(098) 949-45-24
yuriev1908@gmail.com

INTERNSHIP AT THE NORDIC GENETIC RESOURCE CENTER (NORDGEN)

From November 27 to December 16, 2023, researchers Dokukina Kseniia Ivanivna, Solonechna Olha Volodymyrivna (Yuriev Plant Production Institute), and Oleh Volodymyrovych Tryhub (Ustymivka Experimental Station) were doing an internship at the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen) (Alnarp, Sweden)

The purposes of the internship were as follows:

  • To develop a plan and ensure the first steps of updating the existing "Plant Gene Pool" Information System, viz. implementation of GRIN (Germplasm Resources Information Network)-Global, a database application that enables genebanks to store and manage information associated with plant genetic resources, in Ukraine with the participation of NordGen's leading specialists (Alnarp, Sweden) and GRIN-Global experts (Crop Trust and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)). GRIN-Global is a software developed for genebanks to store and manage information related to plant genetic resources and to make this information available globally. Using this software, researchers, educators and breeders worldwide can request germplasm at the GRIN-Global websites.
  • To provide barcoding of packages with seeds per the Agreement on Maintenance of and Restoration of the Ukrainian system of plant genetic resources, which was signed on November 6, 2023, by NordGen and the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations.
  • To investigate NordGen's experience of organization and management of the National Depository of Plant Genetic Resources in order to apply this experience in the management of the National Plant Genebank of Ukraine as well as in the creation and management of a doublet depository of plant genetic resources at the Institute of Agriculture of the Carpathian Region of NAAS.

The internship was conducted by NordGen's leading specialists (Alnarp, Sweden) and a leading expert of the GRIN-Global project at USDA, Martin Reisinger. The following courses were given:

  • Curator Tool (basic course).
  • Curator Tool (working processes of training)
  • Advanced Admin Tool (course for the Ukrainian database).

Several issues related to the organization of work at NordGen were considered, specifically the genebank warehouse, buildings, storage facilities, and laboratory premises. The storage technologies were analyzed; the requirements for seeds for their packing for storage were reviewed; the equipment used for storage was studied. A lot of attention was paid to methods of assessing the viability of seeds. The structure and content of computer databases and GRIN-Global (an application for genebanks) were studied. The barcoding algorithm for gene bank specimens was studied and implemented and an agreement was reached on the transfer of barcoding equipment to the genebank of Ukraine.

An agreement was reached on further cooperation to improve the work of the National Genebank and to implement GRIN-Global for managing the database of the collections of plant genetic resources of Ukraine as well as for developing and managing the National and doublet depositories of plant gene pool specimens of Ukraine.