Mahailluppallama dry-zone organic seed bank: desiccant bead hermetic storage at -18°C?
How do seed conservators at the Plant Genetic Resources Centre preserve genetic viability in traditional legumes and dry-zone millets for fifty years?
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3 Answers from travellers
The Plant Genetic Resources Centre (PGRC) in Gannoruwa and its dry-zone research station at Mahailluppallama maintain ex-situ seed collections for thousands of indigenous crop landraces. Harvested seeds of heirloom rices, finger millets, and wild pulses are cleaned, checked for 98% germination viability, and dried in low-humidity drying rooms (15% RH, 20°C) until internal seed moisture drops below 6%. The dry seeds are hermetically sealed into laminated three-ply aluminum foil packets alongside zeolite desiccant beads and stored inside walk-in deep-freeze vaults maintained at -18°C to arrest metabolic respiration, ensuring viability for over 50 years.
Every five years, sample seed packets are withdrawn to run germination vigor trials on agar plates; lots dropping below 85% germination are regrown in field plots.
Cryogenic liquid nitrogen storage tanks (-196°C) preserve shoot-tip meristems of vegetatively propagated crops like wild yams and indigenous sweet potatoes.
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