Optimal sampling strategies for core collections of plant genetic resources

Abstract

A core collection of crop germplasm aims to represent the genetic diversity in a single collection or in a crop species with minimum similarity between its entries. Core selection can be based on stratified sampling from groups of related accessions. Neutral theory indicates that the relative number from each group should be proportional to its level of polymorphism. This procedure has some biases when alleles are finite in number, or heterotic, or deleterious. In general, weighting in conservation should include both elements of richness and degree of divergence. -from Authors