NBRP, national bioresource project of Japan and plant bioresource management

The National BioResource Project has been organized and established to promote research activities using valuable bioresources. A total of twenty-eight bioresources for ten animals, nine plants and nine microorganisms/ cell lines developed or collected in Japan were selected for the project. Resources are categorized into several different groups in the project; genetic resources, germplasm, genome resources and their information. Choices of how many resources must be preserved and maintained and in which categories are dependent on the status of the research community of each organism. These resources, if utilized systematically and intelligently, are powerful means for leading new scientific discoveries. Some examples can be seen in this paper. This paper reviews plant bioresources with the main focus on rice resource activities within the project.