The Satellite Collections North of the IPK Genebank, located at Gross Luesewitz and Malchow/Poel (both Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania) are responsible for the collection, maintenance, characterization, evaluation, documentation and distribution of potato, oil and fodder crop plant genetic resources. A highlight of the satellite collections at both sites consists in the fact that large and comprehensive genetic resources collections were compiled over more than five decades via systematic collection trips and material exchange. These in large parts reflect the genetic diversity of the respective cultivated species.

 

In addition to the main activities connected with the maintenance of genetic resources, research on aspects of biodiversity utilization have been initiated, based on externally acquired funds (BioChancePlus; ‚Innovationsförderung’ of the BLE). Among others, topics here are resistance to potato cancer and employment of intra-/interspecific crosses to increase diversity in grass cultivars.

 

The Gross Luesewitz Potato Collections contain approximately 6,000 samples, consisting of a cultivar collection with 2,600 samples (KKS), a collection of short-day adapted genotypes from the Andean and equator region (AKS, 500 accessions, mainly native Andean cultivars), and a collection of almost 130 wild and cultivated potato species from South and Central America (WKS) with more than 2,800 accessions.

 

The maintenance of the KKS is achieved in its major proportion via in vitro culture (which is also the only way of maintenance for AKS), but also takes place in the field (for evaluations, control of variety purity and production of tubers for interested parties). In addition, cryopreservation is used as an additional technique (conducted by IPK's research group 'In vitro Storage and Cryopreservation' at Gatersleben). The maintenance of the generatively propagated WKS species as populations is conducted via seed production in the greenhouse. The generated seeds are stored locally at 4°C and as safety duplicates at Malchow/Poel or at Svalbard/Norway, respectively.

 

With regard to health status, the entire potato germplasm is being tested systematically and in defined periods against quarantine diseases. This happens in co-operation with the responsible Plant Protection Offices. For in vitro plantlets, special measures for virus eradication are conducted. At field cultivation, the occurrence of latent viruses (PVS, partly PVX) is tolerated, which should be considered when requesting tubers from the field.

For private requests, generally only KKS tubers are available, but no in vitro plantlets or cryo cultures (for a list of all available tuber samples cf. http://glks.ipk-gatersleben.de/glks_knollenliste.pdf). For each material request, a Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA; also necessary for requests from the Malchow collections) has to be agreed upon between the recipient and IPK. In this respect, a direct placing of orders is feasible via IPK’s Genebank Information System GBIS.

 

Detailed passport data and evaluation data are recorded and can be partially accessed in the internet via GBIS (additional link for all three potato collections: GLKS homepage).

 

The Malchow collections hold a total of more than 14,000 accessions (10,400 Gramineae accessions from 91 species and 16 genera; 2,500 Cruciferae accessions from 18 species and 5 genera, 1,200 Leguminosae accessions from 2 species and 2 genera). According to European regeneration standards for forage and oil crop plant genetic resources, the reproduction of the genetic resources is conducted in isolation plots in the field or in greenhouse cabins. The seeds are maintained in cold storage chambers (at -5 °C as active collection, at -20 °C as base collection) and additionally at external sites as safety duplicates (since 2000 at IPK Gatersleben, since 2008 in Svalbard/Norway); periodically, germinates rates are determined. 

For characterizations and evaluations, a subset of the collection is cultivated annually as individual plants or in rows. Of priority are characterization of new samples and evaluation of recent Gramineae collection material, mainly Lolium perenne L., for morphological and breeding traits. In co-operation with university institutes and the Julius Kuehn-Institute (Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants), relevant quality traits and resistance of populations against some important diseases (e.g. Puccinia coronata, Rhynchosporium and ryegrass mosaic virus) are analyzed. The results are publicly available (via Internet or at request).