Crop Registration: The Pathway to Public Access of Plant Genetic Materials to Build Crops for the Future

Starting in 1926 and continuing for 80+ yr, 11,241 crop genetic materials have been registered as of 31 Dec. 2008. The crop registration process is an important pathway to publically describe and document new and useful genetic materials and to incorporate these into the public domain via the National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS). Crop Registration materials are now searchable via the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) and demand for registered materials remains strong with more than 9150 registered accessions distributed in the past 26 yr by the NPGS. Guidelines continue to evolve to accommodate global factors effecting germplasm exchange such as Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and international treaties (i.e., The International Treaty on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture). Together with (i) the advent of the new Journal of Plant Registrations; (ii) the facilitated search capabilities of GRIN; (iii) the development and definition of genetic materials needing registration (cultivars, germplasm, genetic stocks, parental lines, and mapping populations); and (iv) the recognition and allowance of IPR rights: the registration of crops is a healthy viable dynamic registration system to meet the needs of breeders over the next 80 yr