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The article discusses the ex situ conservation breakthrough at the Australian National Botanic Gardens, highlighting the successful acquisition of viable seeds for the highly exceptional species, the Endangered Muehlenbeckia tuggeranong, through a combination of living collections and seed biology research. This achievement has opened up various research avenues to further support the conservation of this unique species.

The article explores international meeting followed on from the National Seed Science Forum of 2016 and presented the latest advances in seed science across the conservation and agricultural sectors. . it discusses that The Authors would also like to acknowledge the ASSC 2021 Scientific and Organising Committees for their efforts to synthesise the vast amount of information presented throughout the various conference sessions.

Pneumatopteris truncata is listed as Critically Endangered under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act). The Australian population occurs only on Christmas Island where fewer than 50 mature individuals are known and population size fluctuates significantly across years. Ex situ conservation was prioritised as a critical response to insure against loss of the wild population. Spore from wild subpopulations was collected and germination and propagation techniques were trialled. This work has established ex situ spore and plant collections (more than 100 plants), developed protocols for germination and propagation of this species and identified priority future research for threatened fern species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the documenting conservation collections using a genotype collecting method. It discusses the challenge to identify suitable population sources and to ensure resulting propagules have traceable links to parentage for future research and use in species recovery. It mentions the role of genotype collecting method in providing a tool for addressing the needs for strategic conservation collecting.

The article describes the participation of two members of the Australian National Botanic Garden's (ANBG) National Seed Bank team at the International Society for Seed Science conference held in Spain, it presents their research on seed germination in rare species of conservation concern and the importance of light on the germination of Australia's tropical mountain cloud forest species.