ABSTRACT
Maintenance will generally include regeneration for multiplication or rejuvenation. Multiplication sometimes precedes long term storage and then it determines the potential genetic quality of a genebank accession. The plant breeder’s object is to find and use the best from genetic variation, whereas the collection administrator aims at collecting and maintaining as much genetic variation as possible. Genetic drift is the loss of genes due to random fluctuations of gene frequencies that occur in small populations. Since even a very low rate of cross-fertilisation is enough to cause heterogeneity at a considerable number of loci, it is necessary for genetic conservation purposes to treat such populations as genetically heterogeneous and cross-fertilising. The plant breeder’s object is to find and use the best from genetic variation, whereas the collection administrator aims at collecting and maintaining as much genetic variation as possible.
