ABSTRACT
Genetic resources of a given crop species cover the entire range of genetic diversity available, even if only particular genotypes are relevant and significant in industrialized agriculture. For breeding purposes, the entire range of different genotypes of the species has to be considered as a resource for crop improvement. Describing and analyzing the structure of a genepool is primarily the concern of systematics and taxonomy. Thus, systematics and taxonomy, if applied and understood properly, are effective tools to assist activities in germplasm conservation and utilization. Modern molecular techniques, which allow for the description of the genetic structure at the molecular level, are a powerful complement to traditional phenotypic approaches for plant classification.
