ABSTRACT
The term “ g erm plasm ” refers to any living plant m aterial that can be used for sexual and/or vegetative propagation. It can com prise entire plants, seeds, pollen, bulbs, tubers, rhizom es, cell and tissue cultures, etc. Fortunately, m ost germ plasm occurs in situ, i.e., w ild plants propagate them selves in natural vegetations and cu lti vated form s are m aintained by farm ers and the plant and seed com m erce. G erm plasm is stored ex situ in so-called genebanks, institu tions that focus on cu ltivated plants and their close w ild relatives to avoid loss of potentially useful b reeding m aterial and to facilitate the utilization by plant breeders. Loss o f breeding m aterial (genetic erosion) com prises tw o features: the loss of allele com binations and frequencies as occurring in specific populations and, m ore tragic, the total loss of alleles.
