Nickolai Ivanovich Vavilov and his footprint on plantgenetic resources conservation in Germany

This article is dedicated to the 125 th birthday of N.I. Vavilov, with a special emphasis on his interaction during the early years of the 20 th century with German scientists concerned with the conservation of cultivated plants and their wild relatives. The German genebank was established with the foundation of the Institute of Crop Plant Research (at present time the Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research — IPК) in April 1943, and today, this genebank maintains about 150,000 accessions. Here, we present a review of its characterization and evaluation activity, as well as a description of some research highlights based on the genebank's holdings. The research element focuses particularly on the genetic integrity of genebank accessions subjected to long term storage, the genetic diversity retained in situ over time, and the genetics of seed longevity.