To protect the future of the world’s food supply, researchers are striving to increase crop productivity under increasingly difficult environmental and biological challenges. Breeders are developing new, better adapted and more nutritious cultivars by delving into the vast crop diversity found in genebanks, which can provide the genetic characteristics required for the crops of the future.
These breeders and researchers constitute the first group of Genesys users. The portal enables them to explore the world’s collected crop diversity with just a few clicks. Here they can find information on seeds and other types of crop samples coming from, and conserved in, nearly every country in the world.
The second group of users is made up of the genebanks, institutes and research centers who upload collection information to Genesys. The portal enables genebanks to make their data publicly accessible according to agreed standards.
Whatever kind of user you are, you can find detailed guidance in our Genesys tutorials.
Genesys is different because it brings together information on millions of accessions stored in genebanks around the world into one portal. Genesys focuses specifically on material maintained in genebanks and, for example, does not include data on breeding material unless formally part of the genebank collection. Rather than trawling through multiple separate databases, you can search hundreds of genebank collections with a single search term or filter.
Many of the seeds (and other types of planting material) whose data is shared through Genesys are available on request from their holding genebank. Genebanks must explicitly enable this feature in Genesys. When this is the case, you can add an accession to your list and Genesys will relay your request for material to the holding genebank. Kindly note that access to any material is subject to legal and phytosanitary conditions in addition to genebank distribution policies. Most genebanks distribute small amounts, and only for research purposes.
Genesys is managed by the Crop Trust and funded by its Crop Diversity Endowment Fund. National governments around the world are the largest contributors to this fund.
Genesys brings together some of the world’s largest databases of genebanks and plant genetic resource networks.
Networks often incorporate numerous institutes. For example, two million accessions cataloged under the European Cooperative Programme for Plant Genetic Resources (ECPGR) come from hundreds of genebanks and research centers across Europe. Likewise, the CGIAR genebanks are close collaborators and update almost 800,000 passport records every year.
In addition, many individual genebanks, institutes and smaller networks publish their collection information on Genesys to share with the world.
The amount and detail of data on Genesys is constantly expanding. It is updated as and when networks, institutes and genebanks join the community, add material to their collections, enrich the data available about their material, and publish it on the portal. We encourage genebanks to update the information in Genesys at least once per year.
The best way to stay informed about major updates and new features is to sign up for the Genesys Newsletter.
Genesys welcomes contributions from across the plant genetic resources community. To join Genesys as a data provider, please write to the Genesys helpdesk. The Genesys team will send a copy of the Genesys Data Provider Agreement (Genesys DPA), help your institute prepare and upload passport data, and provide the utilities for making additions and updates, including imagery, subsets and C&E datasets.
Genesys is a completely free resource for users of genebank data – free to use and free to join. Anyone can use it as an anonymous visitor, and anyone can register a user account, which grants access to special features that require more processing and server resources.
To register an accession with Genesys you must provide at least the accession number (ACCENUMB), genus (GENUS), and the FAO WIEWS institute code (INSTCODE) of your organization. You can find the appropriate institute code in the WIEWS database, and you may even use Unknown genus if it is not readily available. More on these descriptors can be found in our Accession Documentation page.
Downloading data in Excel, for example, is available when you are logged into a user account. Other features available only to registered users include our Accession similarity search, accessing the history of changes to passport data, and a shorter validation process when requesting material. Accessing the Genesys API (e.g. from R) also requires a user account.