Colorful and Nutritious Vegetable Genetic Resources in the USDA/ARS National Plant Germplasm System

The USDA/ARS National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS) curates a wide spectrum of plant genetic resources, not only for preserving that biodiversity, but also for making them accessible to researchers and breeders for improving crop productivity in the U.S. and around the world. Approximately 19% of the current NPGS holdings of 564,738 accessions are vegetable crops and their wild relatives. As of March 5, 2014, there were 87,000 available vegetable accessions managed by the NPGS’s four Regional Plant Introduction Stations and two crop-specific sites. The North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station in Ames, IA is responsible for curating carrot, cilantro, parsley, cucumber, pumpkin, squash, cantaloupe, honeydew, horned melon, spinach, chicory, and endive. The Northeast Regional Plant Introduction Station in Geneva, NY curates tomato, onion, celery, winter melon, winter squash, cabbage, bok choy, broccoli, cauliflower, turnip, mustard, collard, kale and radish. The Southern Regional Plant Introduction Station in Griffin, GA curates warm season food legumes (black eye pea, mung bean, black gram, asparagus bean, lablab or hyacinth bean, horsegram, catjang and Jerusalem pea), sweet and hot peppers, eggplants, okra, sunset hibiscus, watermelon, butternut squash, tropical pumpkin, bottle gourd, calabash cushaw, chayote and malabar spinach.  The Western Regional Plant Introduction  Station in Pullman, WA curates Phaseolus beans (dry bean, tepary bean, scarlet runner bean, lima bean, and snap bean), cool season food legumes (garden pea, snow pea, sugar snap pea, chickpea, lentil, faba bean and fenugreek), lettuce, garlic, leek, chives, Chinese chives, salsify, table beet, leaf beet, chard and rhubarb. The National Potato Collection in Sturgeon Bay, WI curates germplasm of potatoes and related wild species, and the University of California-Davis’ C.M. Rick Tomato Genetics Resource Center in Davis, CA curates the genetic stocks and wild relatives of tomato. These diverse collections contain crops belonging to 16 plant families, and represent most of the plant species consumed by humans as vegetables. The preceding NPGS sites also manage the associated information (passport data and limited evaluation data) through the Internet-based GRIN data base, which is updated regularly. These vegetable genetic resources play a pivotal role in supplying critical raw materials for both basic and applied research, for genetically-improving existing vegetable crops, and for developing regionally-adapted varieties to diversify human diets.