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The research and genetic studies on maize are overgrowing since this crop is the primary commodity in many countries. Genebank, as the genetic reservoirs for such activities, need to enhance their competencies in conserving the germplasm, including developing a core collection subset as the diversity representative of the whole collection. This study aimed to investigate the effect of selecting a different kind of plant character used in the core collection development, which was constructed by Core Hunter 3, software for multi-purpose core development. Nine kernel characters of 1,279 maize accessions and 19 morpho-agronomic characters of 560 accessions were used to develop three sets of core collections with a targeted core size of 150 accessions. The result showed unexpected results since the inclusion of morpho-agronomic characters in maize core collection development apparently could not increase the diversity properties of the core. They were indicated by the lower value of the Shannon index, VD, VR, and CR as the parameters representing how much variation could be retained by the core. However, another valuable piece of information had been obtained when the three core collections selected the same 14 accessions as the core members. These accessions, selected by three cores, could be categorized as accessions that contribute the most to the diversity of the maize germplasm collections and could be prioritized for long-term conservation and important genetic studies in maize research and development. The results of this study served as well-proven evidence regarding the dynamics of core collection development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Indonesian local rice accessions are well cultivated, including in Kalimantan Island, along with diverse ecogeography and agricultural practices. The diversity existed in the local varieties constitutes valuable genetic resources for sustainable conservation and utilization. This study aimed to investigate the genetic diversity of local rice accessions predominantly from Kalimantan in comparison with other local origins' accessions using simple sequence repeats (SSR) markers. A total of 48 local rice accessions of which 29 accessions originating from Kalimantan and the remaining 19 accessions from other regions in Indonesia were subjected to molecular diversity using 15 SSR markers. The SSR polymorphism revealed that 193 alleles with an average major allele frequency of 0.2 were observed. Considerable high genetic diversity was detected in these Indonesian local accessions as reflected by the average Polymorphic Information Content value and gene diversity index of 0.86 and 0.87, respectively. The dendrogram based on UPGMA and Nei's genetic distance classified the 48 rice accessions into five clusters. The local varieties from Kalimantan dominated two clusters out of four clusters belonging with, indicating their close genetic relationship. These SSR markers demonstrated differentiation among local rice from Kalimantan according to the individual genetic properties rather than their geographical origins. Four out of the 29 Kalimantan's rice accessions having most far distance with others derived from different islands, could be used as crossing parents after further evaluation of their phenotypic traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plant genetic resources (PGR) with high genetic diversity are valuable assets as the basis of global and national food security. This review article provides a comprehensive review about harnessing PGR through the application of biotechnology for food self-sufficiency in general and was addressed in Indonesia. Some topics concerning the challenge of food self-sufficiency related to the status of PGR in Indonesian Agency for Agricultural Research and Development-Indonesian Center for Agricultural Biotechnology and Genetic Resources Research and Development Gene Bank (IAARD-ICABIOGRAD Gene Bank), the utilization of PGR in Indonesia, relevant biotechnology to harness PGR, supporting national legislation for national and global levels, and the future perspective were discussed. Many challenges including climate change, land degradation, increasing human population, and biodiversity loss have been attempted and need a high effort to achieve sustainable food production today. In a conservation perspective, PGR in the country was predominantly for research and breeding that are a complement to the propagation and cultivation. Considering its potential role in food security, a total of 30 crops are conserved ex situ by IAARD-ICABIOGRAD Gene Bank which is assigned to manage the germplasm and some other crop-based research institutes. An effective crop genetic improvement through implementation and application of biotechnology should be raised through basis and advance researches in vitro and molecular biology such as gene and genomic technologies and other omics, genetic engineering including genome editing would expectedly increase the utilization of PGR. As consequence, some governmental policy framework and laws are important support for national PGR program to harness PGR in Indonesia. Therefore, it will be a major opportunity that biotechnological approaches will be incorporated into the national agricultural program in complement with national legislation to food security in Indonesia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Yogyakarta has an agro-ecological diversity consisting of volcanic plateau, karst material to coastal sand dune, mangrove area, low land area, and up-land area. Agro-ecological diversity will affect its genetic resources, one is food crops, especially rice. As the main staple food for Indonesian, rice has genetic diversity. It is possible that agro-ecological diversity could affect genetic resources of local rice. AIAT Yogyakarta is one of Technical Implementation Units under Indonesia Agency for Agricultural Research and Development (IAARD) which is aware of genetic resources diversity, therefore exploration of local rice has been conducting since 2014 until now. Recently, agricultural started to shift to industrial 4.0 for decreasing zero hunger. In this level Agriculture research supported by major technological advance in genetic and information system. AIAT Yogyakarta is starting to develop germplasm management based on Agriculture 4.0. One of development of information system toward agriculture 4.0 can be done by using global information system through multilateral project of digital object identifier (DOI). To support DOI implementation, AIAT Yogyakarta had registered 55 local rice accessions through ICABIOGRAD registration system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]