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 the use of the genetic diversity of agriculturally important plants and their wild relatives.
Introduction
Tremendous genetic variability exists in the local varieties (landraces) of crops and their closely related wild plants (crop wild relatives). The NPGS assists plant breeders and other research scientists by acquiring, conserving, evaluating, documenting, and distributing germplasm (seeds and other propagative material) of these plants, as well as of improved cultivars and breeding lines. This diverse germplasm provides the genetic raw material needed by plant breeders to develop new varieties of crops that have desirable qualities and can withstand constantly changing biological and environmental stresses. Conservation and use of this genetic diversity are critical to meeting the current and future challenges to global food security.
History
Before the Americas were colonized by Europeans, native peoples domesticated indigenous plants including corn, squash and beans and spread them to new agricultural environments. European colonists adopted some crops from Native Americans and introduced others. As demand by farmers and hobbyists for expansion and diversification of agriculture in the U.S. eventually led the federal government to adopt a role in the introduction of and exploration for plant material, which had previously been spearheaded by individuals and agricultural societies. The history of federal plant introduction and exploration in the U.S. has been reviewed in numerous publications. In 1819, The Secretary of the Treasury issued a circular requesting that consuls stationed in other countries obtain seed of useful plants and send them to the U.S. Between 1836 and 1862 the U.S. Patent Office, first under the State Department and then under the Department of the Interior, administered a plant exploration and introduction program funded through yearly appropriations. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) was established in 1862 when President Abraham Lincoln signed the Department of Agriculture Organic Act into law. One of the Department's seven main responsibilities was the collection, testing and distribution of seeds and plants. The Department was headed by a Commissioner until 1889 when it was elevated to Cabinet rank and the first Secretary of Agriculture was appointed.
In 1898, a formal program of plant introduction was initiated with the establishment of the Section of Seed and Plant Introduction in USDA under the direction of noted plant explorer David Fairchild. According to the Annual Report of the Secretary of Agriculture for 1900, the Section's job was " to bring into this country for experimental purposes any foreign seeds and plants which might give promise of increasing the value and variety of our agricultural resources." Material was acquired from several sources, including participants in U.S. naval expeditions, diplomatic officials stationed in foreign countries, other governments and private individuals. The Section also began an intensive program of plant exploration by employing agricultural explorers, who spent most of their time traveling to other countries to collect plant samples. Along with Fairchild, early notable USDA plant explorers included Frank N. Meyer, Niels E. Hansen, and Palemon Howard (P.H.) Dorsett. Many of the introductions brought to the U.S. by the USDA plant explorers led to establishing new or improved crops in the country. Special agent O.F. Cook in the Section initiated the system of assigning sequential Plant Introduction (PI) numbers to samples acquired by the Section and issuing the printed USDA Plant Inventories that documented them. These PI numbers continue to be assigned to material that enters into long-term curation by the NPGS.
