Urgent Need to Conserve Vanilla Genetic Resources

A comprehensive review on the worldwide efforts for the ex-situ preservation (for example in botanical gardens and seed banks) of vanilla genetic resources was recently presented by researchers in France. Vanilla is a member of the orchid plant family. According to authors Severine Bory and colleagues, results of studies dealing with the taxonomy, reproductive biology and diversity of vanilla, specifically Vanilla planifolia, suggest the urgent need for conserving the genetic resources of the species.

Commercial vanilla flavoring is extracted from the vanilla species V. planifolia. Various factors, which include over-collection in the wild and deforestation, led to the extinction of wild populations of the species. Bory’s group recommends that maintenance of germplasm in field or in vitro collections in genebanks is essential in perpetuating the existing genotypes to make them available for vanilla breeding and production. They added that collaborative international efforts should help protect vanilla in its area of origin, where it is highly endangered.

For more information, subscribers may access the review article published in Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution at http://www.springerlink.com/content/p1k3k0288m4v0513/.