Global Genome Initiative Project

About This Project

We collected material from approximately 100 plant species growing in the Jurassic Garden, to contribute to the Global Genome Biodiversity Network database.

This program was funded by the Global Genome Initiative (GGI-Gardens) and the United States Botanic Garden (USBG) and is administered through the Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI) Global Botanic Garden Fund. We are proud members of BGCI and GGBN.

Award to help fund this project

In 2021, Inala Jurassic Garden (IJG) was the only botanic garden in Australia, and one of  fourteen in the world, to receive a GGI-Gardens Award to help preserve genetic plant material from the IJG ex-situ living collection. In 2023, the IJG was again successful as the sole Australian botanic garden and one of only nine in the world in obtaining GGI funding to preserve more genetic plant material from the IJG living collection. 

The Global Genome Initiative for Gardens (GGI-Gardens) is a collaborative, science-based endeavour to collect the Earth's genomic biodiversity of plants, preserve it in genomic biobanks worldwide, and make it available to researchers everywhere. Since 2020 the Global Genome Initiative for Gardens (GGI-Gardens), Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI), BGCI-US, and the United States Botanic Garden (USBG) have provided partnership funding to facilitate the collection of priority plant taxa and preserve their genomic information in in Global Genome Biodiversity Network (GGBN) partnered biorepositories. At the time, it was estimated that approximately half of all vascular plant genera not safeguarded in any genomic biobank were available in botanic gardens. Since 2020, the GGI-Gardens Partnership Awards have supported the collection of more than 3,000 plant genera, including 25% of those genera previously not preserved in any genomic biobank. 

Over the course of 2021, we collected approximately 116 herbarium specimens and associated genome samples from 103 different plant species comprising 44 genera and 12 families from the ex-situ living collection at IJG. In 2023, we collected genome material and herbarium voucher specimens from an additional 27 plant species which covered 26 genera and 14 families. 

The voucher specimens were dried, pressed, mounted on specialised paper and labelled. All completed voucher specimens were lodged in the Tasmanian Herbarium in Hobart for storage and study, and the information was provided to GGBN for inclusion in their database, which is publicly accessible via the GGBN Online Portal. Additional genetic samples of each specimen were also collected, dried, and stored in envelopes in silica gel. IJG was required to become a GGBN member to house the genome collection and is one of four members in Australia (the other 3 being the Museum of Victoria, CSIRO Canberra and the Australian Museum, Sydney) and 120 institution members around the world.   

Thanks to the following for their invaluable support of these two projects: 

• The Global Genome Initiative for Gardens (GGI-Gardens), Botanic Gardens Conservation International (BGCI), BGCI-US, and the United States Botanic Garden (USBG) for funding the projects. 

• Dr Morgan Gostel, Director of the GGI-Gardens project for this encouragement and support for both projects. 

• Dr Catherine Young and Dr Andrew Hingston for their work in collecting and processing the samples and entering the data in the GGBN database. 

• Dr Gintaras Kantvilas, Head of the Tasmanian Herbarium at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) for kindly allowing us to store the herbarium voucher specimens at the Tasmanian Herbarium (Index Herbariorum Code HO). 

• Christine Howells, volunteer at the Tasmanian Herbarium deserves special mention for assisting Catherine and Andrew in preparing the Voucher