The mission of One Love  Genetic Resources Preservation (OLGRP) is to acquire, evaluate, preserve and provide a national collection of genetic resources to secure the biological diversity that underpins a sustainable Medical Marijuana agricultural Preservation through diligent stewardship, research and communication.

“The need to conserve plant genetic resources can no longer be in doubt. The destruction of natural habitats, the replacement of multiple cropping systems with monocultures, the replacement of traditional varieties with uniform high-yielding cultivars all lead to genetic erosion and the loss of crop and plant diversity. Genetic resources are vital for crop breeding programmes as sources of new genes for, for example, disease and pest resistance. They are also vital as sources of pharmaceutical and novel industrial and food products. In their own right they may have potential as new crops.”

 Andrew Praciak  –Department of Plant Sciences and Natural Resources, CAB INTERNATIONAL, Wallingford, Oxon OX10 8DE, UK

• Acquiring crop germplasm	Preserving crop germplasm	Evaluating crop germplasm
  Documenting crop germplasm	Distributing crop germplasm	To preserve the genetic diversity of plants

Objective: 
Serve as the information system for the documentation of plant, genetic, and microbial germplasm maintained by the One Love National Genetic Resources program. Operate and enhance existing databases, create and improve linkages to other genetic resources databases, and share information and technology on documentation of genetic resources collections.

Approach: 
Support will be provided to the existing Medical Canabis databases that serve the Genetic Resources Program to ensure that they are functional and relevant to the needs of collection managers and curators and to the germplasm user community. Upgrades will be made to the highly specialized application software, as appropriate, to ensure that it remains compatible with hardware upgrades and that it meets the requirements for germplasm maintenance and documentation and information exchange.

Appropriate measures will be taken to ensure security of the databases and the data they contain. Contacts will continue, and new contacts will be made, to explore the need for and feasibility of creating new, or improving linkages, to share information with other genetic resources databases.

The seed samples stored in the seed vault are copies of samples from Jamaican  Researchers, plant breeders and other groups wishing to access seed samples cannot do so through the seed vault; instead they must request samples from the depositing Ownwers. The samples stored in the seed valut will, in most cases, be accessible in accordance with the terms and conditions of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, approved by 118 countries/parties.

“The seed vault functions like a safe deposit box in a bank. The bank owns the building and the depositor owns the contents of his or her box”.

One Love owns the facility and the depositing breeders own the seeds they send. The deposit of samples in vault does not constitute a legal transfer of genetic resources. In Coop terminology this is called a “black box” arrangement. Each depositor signs a Deposit Agreement with One Love, acting on behalf of a Member. The Agreement makes clear that One Love does not claim ownership over the deposited samples and that ownership remains with the depositor, who has the sole right of access to those materials in the seed vault. No one has access to anyone else’s seeds from the seed vault.The database of samples and depositors is maintained by One Love.

Seed storageBoxes of seeds in a storeroom,The seeds are stored in four-ply sealed envelopes, then placed into plastic tote containers on metal shelving racks. The storage rooms are kept at −18 °C (0 °F). The low temperature and limited access to oxygen will ensure low metabolic activity and delay seed aging. The permafrost surrounding the facility will help maintain the low temperature of the seeds should the electricity supply fail

Maintaining Healthy Seed Collections

What happens to the seeds in the storage collections? Seeds, even those kept in good storage conditions, eventually lose the ability to germinate and grow. At the Plant Introduction Stations, samples from every accession undergo germination testing about every 5 years. When seeds designated for public distribution show less than 85% germination success, the accession must be “grown out” to preserve viability. In the growout, each sample or accession is planted and pollinated under controlled conditions so that plants only breed within that accession and the gene sample remains pure to that type.

All of the storage collections described above are called ex-situ storage.

This means that a representative sample of seed from a particular locality was collected and preserved in a location away from the original growing site. This is an important method to preserve materials, because duplication of samples at several storage sites decreases the risk of loss from a catastrophic event (fire, weather, or even sabotage). But there are negative aspects of ex situ storage.

For example, each time an accession is regenerated, there is a risk of losing some genetic variation due to random sampling. For example, if a genetic variation is rare (for example, only 1 of 100 seeds has that characteristic), then if only 250 plants are used in the growout, it is possible that gene variant might be missed. This is especially important for characteristics not visible to the eye. The other problem with ex situ storage is that the samples are static- they are a sample of the genes at a particular time, but do not reflect any changes or responses to the environment.

For these reasons, many people believe that in situ or on-farm conservation is also important. In situ collections grow in the places where they historically occurred. These collections may be the varieties used by Andean farmers in Ecuador or the dent corn grown for generations by southern US farmers for making grits. Climate change as well as evolution of plant pests are reasons why keeping a dynamic, evolving collection of in-situ materials is important.

Seed in Vault, Black Box, or Plant Registration Collections

1. Seed is received via Canadian Postal Service or an expedited mail service.
2. Seed is placed at 5°C until unpackaged, logged in and inventoried (1-5 days).
3. The moisture content of seed is adjusted at 5°C and 25% relative humidity for 3-4 weeks.
4. Seed may be temporarily stored at -18°C for up to 4 months awaiting an initial viability assessment using standard germination tests.
5. Seed quality is assessed through germination tests that use Association of Official Seed Analysts rules as a guideline. Germination data are entered into PCMG Data Base.
・ Germination procedures are specific to each species.

・ Under most circumstances, four reps of 50 seed are scored for initial germination assessments.
・ For seed considered for long-term liquid nitrogen storage, two of the four reps are exposed to liquid nitrogen for 24 hrs prior to germination.
6. The seed sample is weighed to determine seed number. 
7. The seed is packaged in a heat-sealable aluminum foil laminate bag.
8. The package is labeled with bar code identity and location labels.
9. Data on seed weight, seed number and storage location are entered into One Love Data Base.
10. The packaged seed is placed into PGGRP’s -18°C storage vault or liquid nitrogen for long-term storage.
Seed for Safety Backup (black-box) Storage
Seeds receive above steps 1-2 and 9-11 are prepackaged in foil-laminate bags.