Digital database established for endemic plant species

ANKARA

The Agriculture and Forestry Ministry has established a digital database called “Barkodtürk” for registering endemic plant species.

The database aims for the protection, long-term preservation and sustainability of Türkiye’s genetic resources and their use in scientific research to transfer them to future generations by creating a DNA bank based on endemic plants as the seeds preserved within the body of the General Directorate of Agricultural Research and Policies (TAGEM), affiliated with the ministry, can be stored for many years without deteriorating their genetic structure.

“Barkodtürk” was established in a bid to identify genetic resources containing endemic species at the molecular level.

The gene bank has long, medium and short-term storage rooms, a collection of tissue and DNA from genetic resources and a herbarium with a capacity of 60,000 samples preserved at minus 18 degrees Celsius.

In addition to endemic plant species, local varieties, wild and transitional forms and other economically important wild species - medicinal, aromatic, or ornamental - are among the samples stored in the gene banks.

In this regard, studies are also carried out in 32 gene banks for the collection, preservation, recording, molecular and morphological characterization, reproduction and presentation of the genetic resource of animals, aquatics, microorganisms and invertebrates.

The genes needed today or in the future will be protected without being eroded by natural or artificial factors thanks to gene banks.

With the seeds stored, materials are also provided for research which are resistant to biotic and abiotic stress conditions in order to be used effectively in breeding studies with advanced biotechnological methods and not to be affected by global climate change with the breeding studies.

“We store every plants’ seeds in these gene banks across the country as a backup,” Nevzat Birişik, the head of the ministry’s Agricultural Research Department, told daily Hürriyet earlier.

Stating the project as a “modern-day Noah’s ark,” Birişik warned about the possibility of different species going extinct due to global climate change.

Noting that one of these gene banks is in the northwestern province lying across Istanbul, he said, “We have kept around 100,000 geophytes there.”

Geophytes are perennial plants with an underground food storage organ, such as a bulb, tuber, corm, or rhizome. Though the parts of these plants above the ground can die due to adverse weather conditions such as extreme winters or dry season, they grow back again from the buds on or within the underground portion of the plant when conditions improve. Crocuses and tulips are some of the species that belong to the geophyte group.