Gene Banking Are GENE Be Used to Help Identify Other Apple Important and Useful in Their Own Trees
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In the process of preservation, gene banks also collect genetic data that can All the methods of gene banking are GENE be used to help identify other apple important and useful in their own trees. There are many projects, way. The USDA-ARS National Plant including the Boulder Apple Tree Germplasm System is the gene bank BANKING Project (BATP), that are trying to find here in the United States. It maintains and preserve historic apple trees. apple collections in many ways to Gene banking is a method to maximize use. “Grafted trees in the preserve and catalog plant The trees we are finding aren’t labeled field are available for phenotypic and genetic evaluations, breeding, and species. or documented in any way, so we must turn to scientific analysis to determine budwood distribution. Seeds in long-term storage conserve the It can take the form of if they are worth preserving. Researchers extract DNA to determine diversity of populations of wild physically cultivating the the cultivar. The DNA is compared to species in an efficient manner, and plants, preserving seeds in cold the data collected from gene banks in cryogenic storage serves as a secure backup if trees in the field are lost” storage, and keeping a record the US and, ideally, all over the world. (Volk et al., 15). of the genomic data taken Without the record to compare to, DNA alone doesn’t tell us what kind of from individual plants. apple tree we are examining. While gene banks don’t have the resources to preserve every single apple tree, they are vital to projects like BATP so we have a chance at identifying the trees we discover. IN SITU EX SITU In situ, on the other hand, is Ex situ refers to cultivated orchards when researchers attempt to and collections of living apple trees. preserve apple trees in their wild The USDA apple collection is located habitat or where they were in Geneva, New York and consists of originally identified. There are over 2,000 trees. Ex situ conservation efforts in Kazakhstan to protect is useful because the genetic material forests of wild native apple trees is easily available for grafting, and projects with the Park Service breeding, research, comparison, and CRYOGENIC here in the US to conserve distribution. However, this method historic orchards located in has a downside because it “can be This method involves taking National Parks like Yosemite. space- and labor-intensive to manage, genetically viable pieces of plants, like These efforts seek to maintain and they [the apple trees] are also shoot tips and buds, and freezing and care for trees where they susceptible to pathogens, pests, and them in liquid nitrogen. The intense stand, rather than relocating environmental threats” (Volk et al., cold keeps the plants dormant and varieties to alternative locations. 12). safe from decay. Then, scientists are The problem is that there is even able to thaw the buds and graft them less control over the onto rootstocks, thereby producing a environmental factors in wild growing specimen of that tree. spaces than in designated “Viable dormant buds have been orchards. successfully retrieved from the cryopreserved state after 10 years of storage” (Volk et al., 13). The main center for cryopreserving apples in the United States is just an hour away in Fort Collins, Colorado. The downside to this method is that it requires specialized equipment and the stability to keep vats of liquid nitrogen consistently cold for decades..