A Biological Resource Centre dedicated to plant genomes

Genomics has seen extraordinary growth since the 1990s and constitutes a major scientific challenge. The numerous genomics programmes carried out on plants led to the creation and proliferation of gene and genome fragment collections. The cloning of genomes into bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) libraries is an invaluable tool for genome analysis, physical mapping, map-based cloning and sequencing projects. The french Ministry of Research acknowledged the strategic importance of these genomic resources and commissioned INRA (French National Institute for Agricultural Research) to set up a Biological Resource Centre (BRC). BRCs are an essential part of the infrastructure underpinning biotechnology. They consist of service providers and repositories of biological material. dedicated to plant genome. In this context, the French Plant Genomic Resources Centre (CNRGV), unique in France, has been set up in 2004. CNRGV is a non-for-profit service centre for plant genomic resources.