Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

GRIN-Global: Empowering and enabling crop diversity

Search over 600,000 active accessions

What is GRIN?

The Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) provides information about USDA national collections of animal, microbial, and plant genetic resources (germplasm) important for food and agricultural production. GRIN documents these collections through informational pages, searchable databases, and links to USDA-ARS projects that curate the collections.

GRIN products include several applications developed by the National Germplasm Resources Laboratory in Beltsville, MD. GRIN-Global includes the ARS version of a public website for the U.S. National Plant Germplasm System, which curates more than 600,000 active accessions of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture.

GRIN-U is a collaboratively developed site that provides freely available educational and training content on plant genetic resources conservation and use.

Alt text

Plant Germplasm

The National Plant Germplasm System (NGPS) is a collaborative effort to safeguard the genetic diversity of agriculturally important plants. The mission of the NPGS is to support agricultural production by acquiring, conserving, evaluating, documenting, and distributing crop germplasm.

Alt text

Animal Germplasm

Animal genetic resources underpin the livestock sector’s production and profitability. As a result livestock industries contribute billions of dollars to national economies. Our mission is to acquire, evaluate and preserve these strategic resources so that industry and the research community can have access to a broad array of genetic variability for national security, the introduction of genetic variation, corrective mating, and various research initiatives.

Alt text

Micriobial Germplasm

The goal of this program is to ensure that the genetic diversity of agriculturally important microorganisms is maintained to enhance and increase agricultural efficiency and profitability.The program will collect, authenticate and characterize potentially useful microbial germplasm; preserve microbial genetic diversity; and facilitate distribution and utilization of microbial germplasm for research and industry.

Alt text

GRIN Datasets

GRIN provides access to data maintained within its database, supporting both searches and export. The Rhizobium collection of nitrogen fixing bacteria is maintained by the ARS Soybean Genomics and Improvement Laboratory in Beltsville, MD. Plant Variety Protection Certificates are issued by the Plant Variety Protection Office of the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service.

GRIN Datasets

Plant Variety Protection

  • PVP Application Dataset

    The Plant Variety Protection Office (PVPO) publishes the status of Plant Variety Protection Applications on a monthly basis.

Rhizobium

  • Rhizobium Dataset

    A service-oriented program with a major objective of distributing characterized germplasm of rhizobia to stakeholders in industry for use in inoculants and for research at State, Federal and University laboratories.