National Plant Germplasm System
The U.S. National Plant Germplasm System is a coordinated network of federal, state, and private institutions administered by the USDA's Agricultural Research Service. Its mission is to conserve the genetic diversity of agriculturally important plants while facilitating the use of germplasm for research, breeding, and educational purposes.
The NPGS operates 27 specialized sites, each responsible for one or more crop collections. Long-term backup storage is provided by the National Laboratory for Genetic Resources Preservation. All NPGS collections are linked through the centralized database. The in Beltsville, MD, manages the GRIN database and coordinates 40 Crop Germplasm Committees —composed of crop specialists that provide guidance to the curators of each major crop collection.
It has been called a “living library” — and America’s safeguard against “famine on a global scale.”
Introduction
Global food production has shifted dramatically from diverse indigenous agriculture and traditional food systems toward intensive, large-scale agricultural practices. Since the Columbian Exchange and the Industrial Revolution, this intensification has increasingly relied on cultivating fewer crop species with uniform characteristics to accommodate mechanized farming and mass production. While these practices offer benefits such as efficiency, higher yields, and streamlined harvesting, they also come with serious risks. The reduction in genetic variability makes crops more vulnerable to pests, diseases, and environmental stresses—threatening food security and resilience in the face of climate change and evolving agricultural challenges.Agricultural research, specifically plant breeding, addresses food security by developing new crop varieties with improved agronomic traits. This process relies fundamentally on genetic diversity, which enables the transfer of beneficial traits from one plant to another. Such diversity is found in local landraces and their crop wild relatives—plants that have evolved over time through adaptation to specific environmental and cultural conditions, often in isolation from other populations. The NPGS supports agricultural research by acquiring, conserving, evaluating, documenting, and distributing diverse germplasm—including wild species, landraces, improved cultivars, and breeding lines.
Background
Historical agricultural events have demonstrated the risks associated with reliance on a limited genetic pool. When genetic diversity is restricted, crops become more vulnerable to pests, pathogens, and environmental changes, leading to widespread yield losses and food shortages. Maintaining diverse seed collections in genebanks ensures that scientists and breeders have access to a broad genetic pool, allowing them to develop disease-resistant and climate-resilient crop varieties.One of the most well-known examples of the dangers of genetic uniformity is the Great Famine of Ireland. Ireland’s reliance on a single potato variety, which lacked resistance to Phytophthora infestans, led to massive crop failures following the outbreak of late blight. With no genetic diversity to provide resistance, the disease spread uncontrollably, causing a famine that resulted in over a million deaths and forced mass emigration. To this day the Irish population remains below its nineteenth century peak. This catastrophe underscores the importance of preserving diverse genetic resources to ensure future crops have the necessary resistance to unforeseen threats.
More recent threats include the emergence of wheat stem rust Ug99, first identified in Uganda in 1999. This highly virulent strain of Puccinia graminis has demonstrated the ability to overcome resistance genes present in many widely cultivated wheat varieties. Its spread presents a significant challenge to wheat production, particularly in regions of Africa and Asia where wheat is a dietary staple. Access to a diverse collection of wheat genetic resources has allowed researchers to identify and breed resistant varieties, highlighting the critical role of seed banks in combating emerging plant diseases. Soybean rust, another devastating plant disease, was introduced to the U.S. in 2004 when Hurricane Ivan carried fungal spores of Phakopsora pachyrhizi from South America. The pathogen spreads rapidly under favorable environmental conditions and can cause substantial yield losses in soybean crops. Breeding resistant cultivars relies heavily on the availability of plant genetic resources, highlighting the importance of maintaining extensive germplasm collections to mitigate agricultural threats.
The importance of safeguarding genetic resources was exemplified during the Siege of Leningrad, one of the longest and most brutal blockades in history. Scientists at the Vavilov Institute of Plant Industry in modern-day Saint Petersburg, home to one of the world’s largest seed collections, protected their precious crop genetic resources even as famine gripped the city. Despite extreme hunger, many scientists refused to consume the seeds, recognizing their value for future generations. Several scientists ultimately starved to death rather than eat the stored seeds, ensuring that these vital genetic resources survived the war. Their sacrifice highlights the critical importance of preserving agricultural biodiversity, not just for immediate food security but for the long-term survival of human civilization.
These historical and modern examples illustrate that conserving crop genetic diversity is not just about preserving plant varieties—it is a necessary safeguard against famine and disease. Gene banks and breeding programs provide the foundation for developing resilient crops, ensuring agricultural sustainability and global food security in the face of evolving threats.
History of Plant Introductions to the U.S.
Here a plant introduction refers to the importation of living plants for agricultural and economic use.The history of plant introduction and exploration in the U.S. has been reviewed in numerous publications.
Colonial Settlement
With the arrival of European settlers in the Americas, indigenous food systems were largely displaced by domesticated crops familiar to Europeans. Seeking to recreate their agricultural traditions, settlers introduced a variety of grains, fruits, and vegetables to the New World, aiming to cultivate the land in ways that mirrored European practices. Lyman Carrier, in Beginnings of Agriculture in America, quotes an Englishman’s letter:As interest grew among farmers and botanical enthusiasts for new plants and diverse crops, the government gradually took on an active role in the introduction and exploration of plant material—efforts that had previously been driven by individuals and agricultural societies. Pioneering figures such as John Bartram, Henry Laurens, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson played a key role in early American plant exploration and exchange. During this period, plant exchange relied on statesman and wealthy landowners to import seeds for cultivation. Jefferson received annual seed shipments from André Thouin, head gardener at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, to experiment at his Monticello estate.
One of the earliest institutional efforts, the Trustees' Garden in what is now Savannah, Georgia, was established in 1733 as an experimental site to test the adaptability of agricultural plants to the American climate. The oldest surviving botanical garden in North America, Bartram's Garden founded in 1728, is believed to contain the last of three original ginkgoes introduced in 1785 to the United States from China, via London. The Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, established by Joseph Banks in the 1770s, became an imperial hub for plant distribution to British Colonies. With the support of plant collectors like David Nelson and naturalists such as John Ellis, Kew Gardens helped facilitate the movement of valuable plants to the New World. In 1785, John Beale Bordley encouraged the formation of the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture—the oldest agricultural society in the United States—to promote the best methods of scientific farming practice. These early agricultural societies played a critical role in the development of American agriculture, acting in many ways as precursors to state and federal agricultural agencies. They served as hubs for sharing knowledge, conducting agricultural experiments, and facilitating the exchange of seeds and plants among farmers.
Early United States
In 1819, the U.S. government officially recognized the importance of plant introductions when the Secretary of the Treasury issued a circular directing American naval officers and consular officials stationed in foreign countries to collect and send seeds of useful plants back to the United States.This marked the beginning of formal federal support for plant industries. In 1818, Congress chartered the Columbian Institute for the Promotion of Arts and Sciences to help modernize American farming practices, followed in 1820 by the establishment of the U.S. Botanic Garden in Washington, D.C. as a national plant science institution.
Between 1838 and 1842, William Rich, serving as the official botanist aboard the Wilkes Expedition, embarked on a global voyage to the Pacific with the objective of securing noteworthy agricultural seeds, roots, and plants. The extensive botanical collections gathered during the expedition led to the construction of a two-section, 50-foot greenhouse behind the Patent Office Building to house and study the specimens—nearly 500 different species and over 1,000 individual plants representing 254 species.
In July 1838, Congress granted Henry Perrine a parcel of land on Indian Key in the Florida Keys with the explicit purpose of introducing useful tropical plants for cultivation in the U.S. Perrine successfully introduced around 200 tropical plant species; among these, the Key lime stands out for its lasting impact. After Henry Perrine’s death, his original land grant was relocated by his wife to Coconut Grove, Florida. Today, this site is home to the USDA Agricultural Research Service Subtropical Horticultural Research Station, one of the oldest NPGS genebank sites.
Between 1836 and 1862, the U.S. Patent Office—first under the Department of State and later the Department of the Interior—administered a plant collection and distribution program. Henry L. Ellsworth, Commissioner of Patents, successfully petitioned Congress in 1839 for $1,000 annually for an Agriculture Division to support farming. These funds were used to collect seeds and distribute them through the U.S. Postal Service. Ellsworth earned the title “Father of the United States Department of Agriculture” for these efforts. By 1848, the Agricultural Section of the Patent Office was conducting agricultural experiments, procuring agricultural statistics and had distributed 250,000 packages of seeds. Today, the USDA has expanded this mission to include plant breeders and scientists around the world in the public, private, and nongovernmental organization sectors, distributing over 250,000 seed samples annually.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture was officially established in 1862 when President Abraham Lincoln signed the Department of Agriculture Organic Act into law. Among the Department’s initial seven mandates was the collection, testing, and distribution of seeds and plants.
Isaac Newton was appointed Commissioner of the newly formed USDA. Under Newton’s leadership, the U.S. Propagation Gardens was created to propagate and test new plant materials to determine their suitability for cultivation in the United States. This initiative laid the groundwork for organized plant introduction and evaluation. Newton appointed William Saunders as the first Superintendent of the Division of Experimental Gardens and Grounds. Saunders would go on to have a profound impact: he was a founding member of the National Grange, one of the earliest agricultural advocacy organizations in the U.S.
In 1871, Frederick Watts became Commissioner of Agriculture and significantly expanded scientific research and international engagement by exchanging 3,450 packages of seed with foreign governments and institutions. These exchanges included notable botanical centers such as Kew Gardens in London, the Royal Gardens of Melbourne in Australia, and the Imperial and Royal Ministries of Agricultural Affairs of Austria-Hungary. During this period, the USDA also established several specialized divisions to support agricultural science: Seed, Botany, Forestry, Pomology, Fiber Crops, Vegetable Pathology, and Agrostology.
Initially headed by a Commissioner, the USDA was elevated to Cabinet status in 1889, marking a significant expansion of its scope and influence. In 1897, James Wilson, who would go on to become the longest-serving Cabinet Secretary in U.S. history, took a major step in advancing plant introductions into the United States. Wilson secured $20,000 in federal funding specifically for the study and distribution of plant material.
This appropriation marked the beginning of a scientific approach to introducing new crops, accelerating the USDA’s mission to provide American farmers with improved and diverse crop varieties. At the time, seed was sent almost entirely to members of Congress for distribution directly to the farmers. The USDA began to work with State Agricultural Experiment Stations to evaluate new crops in experimental gardens for potential incorporation into U.S. agricultural production. The Department also took on a role of promoting new agricultural industries by helping to develop markets for these crops. Commissioner Norman Colman emphasized the value of these efforts, stating that “the increased production of wheat, oats, and other cereals and grasses, has, by reason of the wide distribution of improved varieties, paid tenfold the entire amount expended by the Department of Agriculture since it was established.” By 1901, large-scale seed distribution to farmers had shifted to private industry and the SAES system.