Germplasm Resources Information Network or GRIN is an online
USDA
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...
National Genetic Resources Program
The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is the principal in-house research agency of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). ARS is one of four agencies in USDA's Research, Education and Economics mission area. ARS is charged with ext ...
software project to comprehensively manage the computer database for the holdings of all plant
germplasm
Germplasm are living genetic resources such as seeds or tissues that are maintained for the purpose of animal and plant breeding, preservation, and other research uses. These resources may take the form of seed collections stored in seed banks, t ...
collected by the
National Plant Germplasm System
The U.S. National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS) is a network of institutions and agencies (federal, state and private) led by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the effort to conserve and facilitate t ...
.
GRIN has extended its role to manage information on the germplasm reposits of insect (
invertebrate
Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...
),
microbial, and animal species (see
sub-projects).
[
]
Description
The site is a resource for identifying taxonomic information (scientific names) as well as common namesvarieties
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
, cultivars etc.) of plants covering 10,000 species;[ It gives 450,000 accessions (outdated; GRIN gives 500,000 as of June 2012).] both economically important ones[ and wild species. It profiles plants that are invasive or noxious weeds,][ threatened or endangered,][ giving out data on worldwide distribution][ of its habitat; as well as passport information.][
The network is maintained by GRIN's Database Management Unit (GRIN/DBMU).]Beltsville, Maryland
Beltsville is a census-designated place (CDP) in northern Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. The community was named for Truman Belt, a local landowner. The 2020 census counted 20,133 residents. Beltsville includes the unincorporated ...
,[ which in 1990 replaced its forerunner, the Germplasm Services Laboratory (GSL),][ that had formerly run GRIN.]Global Crop Diversity Trust
The Crop Trust, officially known as the Global Crop Diversity Trust, is an international nonprofit organization with a secretariat in Bonn, Germany. Its mission is to conserve and make available the world's crop diversity for food security.
Esta ...
.
Sub-projects
A stated mission of GRIN is to support the following projects:National Plant Germplasm System
The U.S. National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS) is a network of institutions and agencies (federal, state and private) led by the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in the effort to conserve and facilitate t ...
(NPGS)
* National Animal Germplasm Program
The National Animal Germplasm Program, or NAGP, is a program of the United States Department of Agriculture that captures and cryogenically preserves germplasm from plants and animals it considers important to agriculture for the purpose of prese ...
(NAGP)
* National Microbial Germplasm Program (NMGP)
* National Invertebrate Germplasm Program (NIGP)
See also
* Natural Resources Conservation Service
* Multilingual Multiscript Plant Name Database
* International Plant Names Index
The International Plant Names Index (IPNI) describes itself as "a database of the names and associated basic bibliographical details of seed plants, ferns and lycophytes." Coverage of plant names is best at the rank of species and genus. It inclu ...
* List of electronic Floras
{{expand list, date=May 2018
This list of electronic Floras is arranged by country within continent. An electronic Flora is an online resource which provides descriptions of the associated plants, often also providing identification keys, or parti ...
(for online flora databases).
References
External links
*
* The NRCS also maintains th
PLANT database
{{authority control
Genetics organizations
United States Department of Agriculture
Biodiversity databases
Online taxonomy databases
Year of establishment missing