NGRC | National Agriculture and Food Research Organization

The Research Center of Genetic Resources, NARO (NGRC) is in-charge of collecting and introducing valuable genetic resources from domestic and overseas sources, maintaining passport and evaluation data, and to providing access to these resources for research and development for food and agriculture. The center also carries out diversity studies and develops preservation technology to conserve genetic resources, and creates new genetic and breeding materials using irradiation mutagenesis and other methods. To date, the conserved genetic resources include about 215,000 plant accessions, about 28,000 microorganism accessions, and about 1,000 animal accessions.

NGRC News

Succeeded in avoiding the loss of landrace "Banshu shiro mizuna" suitable for the regional environment of Hyogo prefecture

National Agriculture and Food Research Organization(NARO) and Farmers Factory, an agricultural enterprise, has succeeded in avoiding the loss "Banshu shiro mizuna(Potherb Mustard)" from Hyogo prefecture. "Banshu shiro mizuna" is a landrace of Brassica rapa that has been inherited from generation to generation in Hyogo Prefecture. However, in recent years it has not been cultivated and it was about to lost due to lack of seeds to germinate. "Banshu shiro mizuna" can be produced again with the seeds harvested this time. This result is expected to lead to the succession of local food culture and the development of local communities. Read more

Seed longevity: How long do the seeds survive under appropriate storage conditions?

The Genebank Project is a national project of Japan operated by the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) since 1985. The NARO Genebank is responsible for the conservation of plant genetic resources to provide materials for both scientific research and plant breeding to improve food and feed production. In this study, NARO analyzed the germination test results over 30 years and estimated the seed longevity, the time until the germination percentage falls below 85% of the initial value, of orthodox seeds of approximately 80,000 accessions from 50 species. Read more

Whole-Genome Sequencing of the NARO World Rice Core Collection (WRC)

The National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO) has completed and opened access to the whole-genome sequencing data of the 69 accessions of the World Rice Core Collection (WRC) in Research Center of Genetic Resources (NGRC). It enables users to identify the genome information of target trait in these accessions, and it is expected to promote various breeding and research projects. Read more

Cross search system of genetic resources (PGR-Gateway) by data collaboration of NARO Genebank and National Bioresource Project

The National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO), National Institute of Genetics and Kyoto University have developed a system (PGR-Gateway) that enables cross-searching of rice and wheat genetic resources among the genetic resources of plants preserved at NARO Genebank and the National Bioresource Project (NBRP) and it was published on January 2019. By this system the access to genetic resource information has become more efficient. Read more

CARDI Director visited NARO in conjunction with PGRAsia

The Director of the Cambodian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI) Dr. Ouk Makara and Deputy-director Ms. Sakhan Sophany visited NARO's Research Center of Genetic Resources (NGRC) and Institute of Fruit Trees and Tea Science (NIFTS), and the Kyoto Prefectural Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Technology Centre from April 15 to April 19, 2016. They also made a courtesy call to NARO President, Dr. Tokio Imbe on April 16, 2016 at the NARO Headquarters. The visit was part of the Plant Genetics Resources in Asia (PGRAsia) project in which CARDI is one of the participating organization.