Biological resource centres
These collections are made up of different categories of genetic resources: French national collections and heritage resources, original materials, species related to the cultivated or wild species worked on, resources of a scientific nature like rice insertion lines. BRCs are intended to enrich the collections with new accessions, and keep them under optimum conditions and, lastly, make them available to interested parties.
Agap’s scope extends to 3 BRCs: GAMET in Montpellier, BRC for Tropical Plants in the West Indies and BRC for perennial plants in French Guiana. Two other BRCs are associated: Grapevine BRC near Montpellier and Citrus BRC in Corsica.
Through the ARCAD (Agropolis Resource Centre for Crop Conservation, Adaptation and Diversity) project, the Agap unit is also the Project manager for the Florilège portal. It offers a gateway to the plant biological resources for agriculture conserved in France (metropolitan and overseas). In its current configuration, it represents the network of Plant Biological Resource Centers (BRCs) managed by INRAE, Cirad and IRD. This network is the "Model and cultivated plants" pillar of the national infrastructure AgroBRC-RARe which brings together five networks of Biological Resource Centers: model and cultivated plants, domestic animals and wild species related to domestic animals, micro-organisms of agronomic or agri-food interest, environmental organisms and forest trees.
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Montpellier GAMET Biological Resource Centre
The Agap Institute unit has a biological resources center in Montpellier that brings together several Mediterranean and tropical seed collections: GAMéT (Graines Adaptées aux conditions Méditerranéennes et Tropicales). This new BRC merges CIRAD Tropical BRC with INRAE Maize and Medicago BRCs in the ARCAD building -
Biological Resource Centre for tropical plants in the West Indies
Since 2005, the CIRAD and INRAE teams in Guadeloupe and Martinique have been working together to develop the BRC. Since 2010, they have formalized the creation of the Tropical Plants BRC in the French West Indies. The CRB-PT is certified ISO 9001 version 2015 since August 2022. The species in collection concerned are pineapple, banana, sugarcane, yam and mango. -
Biological resource centre for perennial plants in French Guiana
The conservation of coffee, cocoa and hevea collections provides French territory with the natural varieties or CIRAD varieties required for selection and development programs for these species in support of the plant sectors.