Considered one of the largest repositories of germplasm in the world, with a total of 147,000 plant samples (seeds and plants) representing over 1,100 species, Embrapa's Gene Bank has just been reinforced and reached the mark of 120,000 seed accessions conserved in the long term This volume of accessions (or samples) is especially due to the deposit of about 3,000 accessions from Embrapa Rice and Beans' Active Gene Banks (BAGs) based in Santo Antônio de Goiás, Goiás. A large portion of the rice and bean accessions deposited at the Gene Bank under the responsibility of Embrapa Genetic Resources and Biotechnology in Brasília, DF, already has a new address for their storage in the following decades: the World Seed Bank located in Svalbard, Norway, where they will be sent in 2024. The shipment that has just arrived in Brasilia comprises bean and rice accessions. According to Paula Torga, curator of the bean gene bank, the 1,300 samples of the collection consist of traditional varieties grown mostly by smallholders. “Those varieties, which have undergone a process of natural and artificial selection, are highly adapted to the regions where they are grown; hence they have a reservoir of genes that offer resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses - a very valuable trait for breeding programs or to solve problems that could occur,” explains the researcher from Embrapa Rice and Beans. The genetic material in the bank was collected from 1983 to 2012, in 396 town and cities, through a total of 33 expeditions. Rice is the champion in volume of accessions The base collection also known as Colbase received copies of samples of the crop that has the public corporation's largest seed collection: rice, with a total of 24,000 samples. “Our mission here at the Unit is to collect, multiply, characterize and make seed samples available to society, while the Gene Bank's is to protect this material from any loss that may happen.” “It is important to stress that these materials are the raw material for breeding and genetic improvement, which will originate the new varieties, and this is extremely important for food security,” notes researcher Flávio Breseghello, from Embrapa Rice and Beans. According to data available on the Platform Genesys, Colbase ranks second among long-term collections in terms of information availability, after Germany and three international centers of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). “Embrapa's rice and bean BAGs constitute the world's largest and second largest collection of these species, disregarding the collections of international centers,” states researcher Juliano Padua, from Embrapa Genetic Resources and Biotechnology. Data from Embrapa's BAGs and partner institutions are constantly updated in the Alelo System. General data on the Gene Bank can be consulted here and details of several world collections are also available on the Genesys Portal.