CROP WILD RELATIVES AT THE GENEBANK OF CNR, BARI, ITALY

The Italian Gene Bank of the National Research Council (CNR) at Bari, started to collect crop wild relatives (cwr), together with threatened crops in 1970. At the beginning cwr did not receive much attention, as it was later on, in collaboration with FAO, IPGRI, ICARDA, IPK (Germany), Institute of Agrobotany (Hungary), University of Tuscia (Italy), and others. Germplasma, gathered in all the Mediterranean Countries, including Italy, Ethiopia, South Africa, Middle East, etc., were shared with national institutions and in some occasions were duplicated to IPK gene bank. The most important collected cwr concern species related to wheat, barley, oat, rye, pea, bean, cabbage, cowpea, lentil, sugar beet, meadow grass, white clover, lettuce, sage, crambe and others. They are preserved ex situ at 0°C and 35% of R.H (short and medium term) and at -20°C (long term). A database of the collection by genera and species has been created. A part from the research carried out in other centers on the material provided to them, for which, unfortunately, there is no feedback, a lot of research has been carried out at Bari in collaboration with other Italian and foreign researchers. From 1988 to 2000 the Italian Gene Bank of Bari coordinated a national project of CNR on plant, animal and microbial biodiversity, including cwr, with the aim to improve in situ and ex situ conservation and utilization of genetic resources. From 2002 to 2005, the Gene Bank, in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, the Regional Council of Basilicata and the University of Bari, has also realized in Basilicata (at Policoro, PZ) a Thematic Center for the Safeguard and Protection of Mediterranean Plant Biodiversity, including cwr and endemic species of naturalistic importance. Data and information concerning genera and specie of cwr collected, preserved and studied at the Bari Gene Bank for utilization will be presented.