Great advances in the field of crop germplasm resources in China during 1996—2000

During 1996-2000 (the Ninth Five-Year Plan's period),the program entitled“Evaluation and research on germplasm resources of major crops”listed in the National Key Scien-tech Breakthrough Project by Chinese government made great achievements.The completion of the program has enriched further the genetic diversity of crop germplasm resources all over the country and up to now the total number of crop germplasm preserved has reached about 370,000 accessions,which made China the second largest germplasm-preserving country in the world.Through large-scale characterization and evaluation of various germplasm,totally 241 accessions of elite germplasm screened out have contributed greatly to present crop breeding and agricultural production,which has gained the award entitled“the Great Achievement of the Ninth Five-Year Project”. Meanwhile,a number of precious,rare and elite germplasm and wild relatives of crops were rescued through exploration and collection.Great progress has also made in the following fields:fingerprinting of crop germplasm of five major crops (rice,wheat, maize,soybean and cotton),gene mapping and tagging for important traits,theory and methodology of ex situ preservation.Principles and methods for establishing core collections in cultivated rice and wheat were proposed.The development of information system on trait distribution of crop germplasm and the mapping of trait distribution provided the basis for understanding the mechanisms of the formation and distribution of germplasm traits.