China's leading seed bank preserves plant biodiversity

[superadmin]

Chinese scientists have recently collected seeds of several plants at a height of about 6,200 meters above sea level on the world's highest peak Mount Qomolangma and will permanently preserve them in a place where seeds can be kept alive for as long as thousands of years.

The seed haven, namely the Germplasm Bank of Wild Species (GBWS), is located in an ordinary four-story building in a research institute in the city of Kunming, which will host the upcoming 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity.

As the genes of most plants are contained in their seeds, germplasm resources have become the carriers of plants' genetic information. A seed bank serves as the most important facility for preserving such resources.

The GBWS had preserved more than 85,000 seed samples from over 10,000 species of wild plants by the end of 2020, accounting for 36 percent of the number of China's seed plant species, said Yu Fuqiang, deputy director of the bank.


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