|
| ||
|
Introduction
Activities
Publications
Directories
Partners
| |
IntroductionA dialogue with the International Center for Potato (CIP) on enhancing collaboration among the sweet potato workers in Asia started at the end of 1993. During 1994-95, a draft concept paper on "collaboration for the conservation of sweet potato biodiversity in Asia and the Pacific" was prepared jointly by Dr Schmiediche, CIP-Bogor and APO. This was circulated within CIP and IPGRI. Based on the comments received, the concept note was finalised in 1995-96 which received attracted much attention from a number of countries in the region. This led to the organization of a joint meeting with CIP in Bogor, Indonesia, entitled "Workshop on the Formation of a Network for the Conservation of Sweet Potato Biodiversity in Asia" during 1-5 May 1996. The workshop was attended by one representative from each of the eleven invited countries. The group consisted of mostly breeders with a vested interest in conserving sweet potato germplasm, as generally there are no specific curators for sweet potato. In addition to presenting latest information on sweet potato genetic resources in APO region, concepts of field genebank structuring and managing, complementary conservation strategy and the idea of using seed conservation as an additional tool were discussed. At this meeting, several recommendations were made to improve the
work on sweet potato GR, including the formation of Asian Network on
Sweet Potato Genetic Resources (ANSWER), with Dr Jusuf from
Indonesia as the Interim Coordinator and with member countries (Dr.
M. Jusuf, Plant Breeder, Research Institute for Legumes and Root
Crops (RILET), J1. Raya Kendal Payak, PO BOX 66, Malang, Indonesia.
Fax: 62-0341-801496; Telephone: 62-0341-801468, email: blitkabi@mlg.mega.net.id In September 1-6, 1997, the first training on Maintenance, characterization and duplicate identification of sweet potato was held in PRCRTC, ViSCA, Baybay, Leyte, Philippines. This was the first major activity of ANSWER supported by IPGRI and CIP. It was expected that 11 member countries would be represented but only 6 member countries were able to make it due to problem of communication. This training facilitated hands-on morphological characterization on sweet potato including, data encoding in computer software program. The training has yielded positive response from those who attended. The Second Answer meeting: Members of the ANSWER network (except those from Japan and PNG) met in Bogor along with CIP and IPGRI representatives on November 2-5, 1999, in order to discuss the further development of the network. The objectives of this meeting were to review progress; identify priority problems and develop a plan for a regional project, with emphasis on coordinated actions and shared resources; define project outputs, responsibilities and funding needs and define governance and management of ANSWER activities. The proceedings that have been put together jointly by CIP and IPGRI indicate that much has been achieved on the objectives set for the meeting. At this meeting, it was agreed that CIP would be the Secretariat of ANSWER and IPGRI will continue to provide technical and scientific backstopping to the network. Communication will be further stimulated by web page (at http://www.eseap.cipotato.org/answer). This initiative has focused attention on Asian sweet potato germplasm, which although is not as diverse as that from South America, is important to Asian sweet potato improvement people and growers in the region. Taking advantage of the presence a number of ANSWER members, a meeting of ANSWER in September 2000, during the ISRTC Congress 2000 in Tsukuba, Japan, chaired by Dr Mariscal. The Coordinator informed that the ANSWER website was developed (see above). A decision was made to place the sweet potato characterization data on the web, and some discussion on traits that could be placed on the web took place. The Coordinator will finalize the list of traits. It was agreed that the members would jointly work on mapping of germplasm collected on a regional scale. With assistance of Japan, an ANSWER Workshop on Exploring the Potential of In Situ (On-Farm) Conservation of Sweetpotato Genetic Resources in Asia has been scheduled for October 2-4, 2001, at Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia. This will be organized by the Japanese Gene Bank, Central Research Institute for Food Crops (CRIFC), Asian Network for Sweetpotato Genetic Resources (ANSWER), International Potato Center, (CIP) and International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI). This workshop aims to: 1. Review progress in sweetpotato conservation among ANSWER member countries; 2. Update database of sweetpotato genetic resources in each member countries; 3. Identify common problems of field genebank management of sweet potato and 4. Formulate plans for the use of in situ (on-farm) conservation strategy for sweet potato genetic resources. The expected outputs are: 1. Updated number of genetic resources maintained in each member countries; 2. Work plan on in situ (on-farm) conservation. Within the context of ANSWER, and with linkages to its work on field genebank management, IPGRI supported three activities on sweet potato genetic resources. 1. The work conducted at PRCRTC, the Philippines during the last
two years was focused on the various aspects of field genebank
management and on the stratified use of complementary conservation
methods. Generally, this project related activities have focused on
the different components of a conservation-use process in a way to
assist the further development of a complementary conservation
strategy for tropical tuber crops. 2. The collaborative at UPM was started about two years ago with
an assumption that, with clonally propagated polyploid species,
morphological characterisation has to be supplemented with molecular
markers in order to properly genotype accessions and identify
duplicates. Development of molecular marker protocols for sweet
potato was also seen to be essential to reveal population genetic
structures (diversity, subdivision, distance) within and between
locally adapted sweet potato materials for identification of the
locally most important clonal germplasm. These targets were
prioritised because of their essential role in the improvement of
cost-effectiveness of long-term ex situ conservation, realised to be
achieved only through reduction of the size of field genebanks and
stratified use of complementary methods. Hence, the development of
molecular tools for sweet potato links closely to the overall CCS
development and links together the two ongoing projects, at PRCRTC
and at UPM, although the technical approach of the projects differs.
The work on development of a molecular method (RAPD) for genotyping
of sweet potatoes has progressed very well. This part of the studies
has been finished, reported and published - recently submitted also
to an international journal. During the last part of this year, the
major focus of the work has been shifted from genotyping to
population genetics aspects and development/application of
appropriate technique for that purpose (SSRs). However, based on the
first reports on the SSR-work at UPM, a good progress is noted. It
also studied genetic diversity in sweet potato using molecular
markers and its relation to gene expression as expressed in the form
of heterosis within their progenies. No correlation between
heterosis and genetic distance was observed and this could be due to
the small level of dissimilarity between parents that were collected
in the same region. Technique for measuring genetic diversity in
sweetpotato accessions has been standardized and further work on
diverse genotypes is in progress. 3. A study, in collaboration with MARDI, was
undertaken to test the feasibility of the RAPD-system developed at
UPM for genotyping of sweet potato and to analyse the number of
duplicates in one case study. The project has progressed very well
and will be completed during early 1999. MARDI’s sweet potato
germplasm is very narrow (around 200 genotypes) and their work is
firmly breeding oriented. Therefore, when compared to the other two
ongoing work on sweet potato, this project was planned to be just a
case study without any kind of follow-up. However, the practical
outputs on duplicate identification produced in the project can help
many of the other programmes working in the region and hence the
results should be fully exploited by the other ANSWER-members. Efforts to make the network dynamic and sustainable are underway. An active ANSWER is profitably addressing/ plans to address the following issues:
List of publication names or link to publication if electronic version available online
List of members with names of the country coordinators, their contact details and links to their country institution’s homepage if applicable
Names of collaborating partners and links to their homepage if available.
For more information contact Ramanatha Rao, V. (v.rao@cgiar.org)
| ||
CIP. 1993. Proceedings of the Asian Sweet Potato Germplasm
Networking Meeting, held February 25-March 2 1991 at Guangzhou,
China. Sponsored by CIP and IBPGR and GAAS. Manila, CIP.