Plant Genome Outreach Program For Natives

Corn Accessions

by: Irene Bitsoi
Abstract:
Conservation of plant genetic resources differ depending on whether they are approached using in situ and ex situ conservation. In this project I have examined the 14 accessions of Native American corn curated in the ex situ approach at the North Central Regional Plant Introduction Station and compared it with my in situ accessions back home in New Mexico. With in situ and ex situ conservation, I will explain how in situ and ex situ conservation methods are used to maintain biodiversity. Everything at the PI station is ex situ. Their job is to maintain the seed on how it was giving to them, therefore their ex situ seed is preserved as given and nothing about it changes as time persists. As opposed to the ex situ conservation, the in situ conservation is contained and kept in the area it was formed or the origin of the seeds, in which case the seed may change from time to time due to different growth and time planted and the usage of the seeds. In the Navajo reservation corn is a scared plant in the Navajo perception. Corn does not only provide food for the Navajo people but it also a scared sacrament among them used in prayer in their everyday life. The purpose of this project is to further elaborate the importance of corn to Navajo people and how they make use of it as divergent to the ex situ technique.