Bockelman manages the Aberdeen
gene bank that also houses wheat, oats, rye, and other small grains.
The
gene bank will explore, record, conserve, utilise and restore the botanical heritage of the country and help re-acquaint people with the beauty of plants that are natural to arid climates and their habitats.
The international community decided to set up seed bank, frequently known as
gene banks, as a response to the loss of bio-diversity.
And throughout the Andes, the cradle of tomatoes, wild-tomato species have become so imperiled that "before too long, the only real examples of tomato diversity will be in a
gene bank," she says.
Mrs Flack, who breeds Welsh black and red poll cattle,and Welsh black mountain sheep, said: ``Preserving rare and traditional breeds is important because it maintains a
gene bank of characteristics,like disease resistance, that may one day become very important to all farmers.
A Warwickshire-based charity is to create a
gene bank of rare sheep as part of an extensive conservation programme to protect native farm animals.
BGCI will fund a living
gene bank in botanic gardens worldwide to protect rare plants.
The appeal, set up by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, aims to pay for a '
gene bank' to ensure endangered breeds are not wiped out by future farming crises.
But with a finite
gene bank, sometimes more diversity is needed, and researchers now know that certain cell types can generate more than one protein from a single gene.
"Growing conditions and food demands change rapidly and breeders never know which variety stored in a crop
gene bank somewhere in the world is going to be that proverbial needle in the haystack that will provide the critical trait that can literally make the difference between abundance and starvation," said Fowler.