Agricultural University of Wageningen

Resource Identification for a Biological Collection Information Service in Europe

BioCISE member organisation

The Wageningen Agricultural University, with its chairs of Biotechnology, Plant Breeding, Genetics, Horticulture, Physiology, Forestry, Plant Taxonomy, Animal Taxonomy as well as Chemistry and Biochemistry, is actively involved in a multitude of organism-related biotechnological research efforts. The CPRO-DLO institution, also in Wageningen, is the seat of the national seedbank CGN of the Netherlands.

The research programme of the Plant Taxonomy Group is arranged according to three main lines: Taxonomy of cultivated plants, the taxonomic input in the Plant Resources of Southeast Asia (PROSEA) project; and fundamental taxonomic research of tropical organisms, with emphasis on groups of the African and European flora.

The physical facilities of the laboratory include the Herbarium Vadense, now containing about 600,000 specimens, a small but well-equipped chemo/cytotaxonomic laboratory, ample computer facilities, a specialised library, and a tropical greenhouse with several compartments which provides living space to many rare or difficult to obtain plants needed for research.

The research carried out at the laboratory was qualified for financing under the headers of Organism Taxonomic research for conservation and sustainable use of tropical ecosystems, Ecology and Biodiversity, and Utilisation of genetic variation in organisms: e.g. ECOSYN. The Flora of Benin project (funded by DGIS, Dutch Ministry of Foreign Development Cooperation) aims at providing a good National Herbarium to contain 40.000 specimens and the writing of an analytical Flora.

In the laboratory specialists work on certain plant groups, as is usual in organism taxonomy, regularly in cooperation with sister institutions or other departments. Collaboration with the major European, American and African herbaria is standard practice, and this has led to a useful exchange of data and views. Collaboration with various flora projects include Flora Malesiana, Fl. Gabon, Fl. Cameroun, Fl. Afrique Central, Fl. Zambesiaca, and Fl. Ethiopia. The Secretariat of the Association for the Taxonomic Study of the Flora of Tropical Africa (AETFAT) has been held in Wageningen from 1991-1994 and the department's director functioned as General Secretary of the organization in that period. The department has been partner of a group developing a new International Code for the Nomenclature of Cultivated Plants. In the field of cultivated organisms research the Solanum project is carried out in cooperation with the Centre for Plant Breeding and Reproduction Research (CPRO) and its Centre for Genetic Resources, the Netherlands, the University of Wisconsin (Madison), and also as activity within the German-Dutch bilateral genebank cooperative programme. The department also participates in the European Solanaceae Information Network. The Beta project was concluded in 1992 with a biosystematic monograph of the species in section Beta giving support for classification and conservation of genetic resources, and plant breeding. Field work in Portugal, Cyprus and Crete added to the experimental data obtained from the Wageningen fields. Ornamental plants are the domain of the Hortus Section, which provides the scientific background for the University's Botanic Gardens.

The PROSEA foundation, a cooperation programme between Wageningen and 6 Southeast Asian countries, aiming at the publication of a multivolume handbook (10 volumes published) and the establishment of a large database on the plant resources of SE Asia, involves numerous world-wide contacts with authors and editors, in the fields of taxonomy, agronomy and forestry.

Apart from the PROSEA database, the department is involved in organism databasing through its input to the International Legume Database and Information Service (ILDIS) and by its development of a herbarium management system which will support floristic research, especially to support floristic treatments and exploration of West and Central Africa. The University's Botanical Garden takes part in the computerised National Network of Botanical Gardens in the Netherlands.

The staff of the department will contribute to the Concerted Action with its experience gained in these projects, as well as by the establishment of contacts to other departments of the Agricultural University, thereby opening up an important circle of potential users and providers of information for a Collection Information Service.

The responsible scientist, Prof. Dr. L. J. G. van der Maesen is Professor of Taxonomy and has been involved in all activities of the department mentioned above. He is a renowned taxonomist in the Legume family (particularly Cajaninae and Cicer) and has spearheaded various projects contributing to the better knowledge of this economically important family of organisms. Apart from contributing his knowledge in plant taxonomy, organism genetic resources and nomenclature of cultivated plants, he will act as the contact person to the applied botanical research community within the concerted action.

Publications include:

Maesen, L.J.G. van der (1986): Cajanus DC. and Atylosia Wight & Arn. (Leguminosae). Agric. Univ. Wag. Papers 85(4):1-225.

Lockerman, R.H., Bisby, F.A. & MAESEN, L.J.G. van der (1988): Workshop: integration of information on organism diversity. In: World Crops; Cool season food legumes. Ed. R.J. Summerfield. Pp. 129-133. Kluwer, Dordrecht.

Maesen, L.J.G. van der (1988): Genetic resources of tropical legumes. In: Systematic botany - a key science for tropical research and documentation. Ed. I. Hedberg. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis 28(3):79-91.

Maesen, L.J.G. van der (1994): Pueraria, the kudzu and its relatives. An update of the taxonomy. In: Proceedings of the International Symposium on Tuber Legumes, Guadaloupe. Ed. M. Sørensen.

Maesen, L.J.G. van der (1996): The biodiversity of African organisms. In: Proceedings XIVth AETFAT Congress, 22-27 August 1994, Wageningen, The Netherlands. Edited by L.J.G. van der Maesen, X.M. van der Burgt & J.M. van Medenbach de Rooy. Kluwer, 1996, 861 pp.

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