ARS | Publication request: OAT GERMPLASM RESOURCES IN THE USDA-ARS NATIONAL SMALL GRAINS COLLECTION

Submitted to: American Oat Workers Conference Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: July 26, 1998
Publication Date: N/A

Technical Abstract: The USDA-ARS National Small Grains Collection (NSGC) is a large working collection of wheat, barley, oat, rye, triticale, and rice. The origins of these small grain collections date back to the beginning of the 20th century with the first USDA plant explorers. For the first half of the century, the collections were maintained individually by USDA Cereal Investigators. The NSGC was officially organized in 1948, bringing together the various small grain collections. The oat (Avena) collection presently consists of 20,781 accessions representing 17 species originating in 95 countries and regions of the world. Important components of the oat collection include 9,904 accessions of A. sativa and 8,264 of A. sterilis. More than 225,000 evaluation data records are available, including important disease, insect, quality, and agronomic characters. Passport and evaluation data are maintained on the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), available online at http://www.ars-grin.gov/npgs.