Biodiversity and Conservation Test - 71

Gene bank is a type of biorepository which preserves genetic material for the future purpose. For plants, this could be by freezing cuttings from the plant, or stocking the seeds (e.g., in a seed bank). For animals, this is the freezing of sperm and eggs in zoological freezers until further need. With corals, fragments are taken which are stored in water tanks under controlled conditions. Types of gene banks include seed bank, tissue bank, cryobank, pollen bank, field gene bank etc. Thus, the correct answer is option A.

• Orthodox seeds can be desiccated and then stored. Storage life is increased by low temperature. These should maintain high vigor and viability at least from harvest until the next growing season or for many decades at - 18$$^{0}$$C.

Vavilov mega diversity center is in Australia. It was indicated by Dr. Nikolai Ivanovich Vavilov. He stated that "plants were not domesticated somewhere in the world at random but there are regions where the domestication started". The center of origin is also considered the center of diversity.

Genetic diversity refers to the total number of genetic characteristics in the genetic makeup of the species. Genetic diversity serves as a way for populations to adapt to changing environments.
In order to capture the maximum genetic diversity of a species, recent, old, wild - all kind of varieties will be considered and taken into account and searched.
Thus, the correct answer is option (D),  'All of the above'.

• Sexual reproduction is critical for maintaining genetic diversity within a species because it combines the parents genetic material, resulting in offspring with unique genetic blueprints different from either parent. 
• Genetic diversity is important for two reasons. First of all, when a population of an organism contains a large gene pool that is, if the genetic blueprints of individuals in the population vary significantly, the group has a greater chance of surviving and flourishing than a population with limited genetic variability.
• Second, genetic diversity also reduces the incidence of unfavorable inherited traits. 
• The home lands of our food crops are vital geographic regions where the greatest genetic diversity for each species can be found. 

Thus, option B is correct. 

The Rht - B1b and Rht - D1b are dwarfing genes, derived from Norin - 10. Norin - 10, which was a semi - dwarf variety bred in Japan and released in 1935. Norin - 10 was used in order to improve lodging resistance in winter wheat. 

Botanic gardens contain collections of plants for education, scientific purposes and display. Botanic gardens also have important conservation collections particularly of rare and threatened plants. According to the IUCN Red List of threatened plants 34,000 taxa are considered globally threatened with extinction. Currently, over 10,000 threatened species, approximately a third, are in botanic garden cultivation. These plants contribute to species recovery programmes and provide long-term backup collections.

Endangered species is an species facing a high risk of extinction in the wild in the near future due to decrease in its habitat, excessive predation or poaching. The percentage number of endangered species in the list of threatened ones is 19 percent mammals, 17 percent birds, 21 percent reptiles, 22 percent amphibians and 19 percent angiosperms. In India their number is 54 animals and 113 plants. E.g., Ailurus fulgens (red panda), Bentinckia nicobarica. Some other examples are blue whale, largest lemur Idri idri of Madagascar, Asiatic wild ass and lion tailed macaque.

Germplasm is a term used to describe living genetic resources such as seeds or tissue, maintained for the purpose of breeding, preservation, and other research uses. These resources may take the form of seed collections stored in seed banks, trees growing in nurseries, animal breeding lines maintained in animal breeding programs or gene banks, etc. Germplasm collections can range from collections of wild species to elite, domesticated breeding lines that have undergone extensive human selection.
Holstein-Friesian (HF) gene bank collections were established in France  to conserve genetic diversity for this breed. The cryobanks have captured substantial amounts of genetic diversity for the HF compared with the current populations. A substantial part of the US, French, and Dutch collections seems to be genetically similar. On the other hand, the US collection in particular represents an interesting reservoir of HF genes of the past. Gene banks can play an important role in conserving genetic diversity within livestock breeds over time, and may support industry in the future when needed.