RDA-Genebank and Digital Phenotyping for Next-Generation Research on Plant Genetic Resources

Abstract

The National Agrobiodiversity Center under the Rural Development Administration (RDA) in Jeonju, Republic of Korea stands as the foremost national genebank in the country. Over the years, the National Agrobiodiversity Center has remained committed to enriching its collection with foreign genetic resources, elevating its status to a world-class plant genetic resources (PGR)- holding genebank. Currently, several steps are being undertaken to improve the accessibility of the collection to national as well as international researchers, improve the data available on the resources, and amend the passport information for the accessions. With the implementation of the Nagoya Protocol, the origin of genetic resources is being highlighted as an important input in the passport information. The RDA-Genebank actively responds to the Nagoya Protocol by supplementing passport data for resources lacking information on their origin. In addition, a large number of conserved resources are continuously multiplied, and agronomic traits are investigated concurrently. With the traditional methods of characterization of the germplasm requiring a significant amount of time and effort, we have initiated high-throughput phenotyping using digital techniques to improve our germplasm data. Primarily, we have started adding seed phenotype information followed by measuring root phenotypes which are stored under agronomic traits. This may be the initial step toward using largescale high-throughput techniques for a germplasm. In this study, we aim to provide an introduction to the RDA-Genebank, to adopted international standards, and to the establishment of high-throughput phenotyping techniques for the improvement of passport information.