Genes, Vol. 12, Pages 1584: Opportunities and Challenges to Improve a Public Research Program in Plant Breeding and Enhance Underutilized Plant Genetic Resources in the Tropics

Genes, Vol. 12, Pages 1584: Opportunities and Challenges to Improve a Public Research Program in Plant Breeding and Enhance Underutilized Plant Genetic Resources in the Tropics Genes doi: 10.3390/genes12101584 Authors: Ivania Cerón-Souza Carlos H. Galeano Katherine Tehelen Hugo R. Jiménez Carolina González The American tropics are hotspots of wild and domesticated plant biodiversity, which is still underutilized by breeding programs despite being conserved at regional gene banks. The improvement of those programs depends on long-term public funds and the maintenance of specialized staff. Unfortunately, financial ups and downs complicate staff connectivity and their research impact. Between 2000 and 2010, Agrosavia (Corporación Colombiana de Investigación Agropecuaria) dramatically decreased its public financial support. In 2017, we surveyed all 52 researchers from Agrosavia involved in plant breeding and plant genetic resource programs to examine the effect of decimating funds in the last ten years. We hypothesized that the staff dedicated to plant breeding still suffer a strong fragmentation and low connectivity. As we expected, the social network among researchers is weak. The top ten central leaders are predominantly males with an M.Sc. degree but have significant experience in the area. The staff has experience in 31 tropical crops, and 17 are on the list of underutilized species. Moreover, although 26 of these crops are in the national germplasm bank...
Source: Genes - Category: Genetics & Stem Cells Authors: Tags: Article Source Type: research