Presentation

Genomics has seen extraordinary growth since the 1990s and has emerged as a major science front.

In the late 1990s, libraries of genome fragments cloned into bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) established as the tool of choice for genome analysis, physical mapping, map-based cloning and sequencing projects.

The French Ministry of Research commissioned INRA to set up a Biological Resource Center (BRC) to conserve and value these genomic resources.

This is how the French Plant Genomic Resources Center (CNRGV), was set up in 2004 on the Occitanie-Toulouse INRAE center.

 

The CNRGV is a non-for-profit service center for plant genomic resources belonging to the Plant Biology and Breeding department of INRAE (National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment).

CNRGV building

The missions of the CNRGV

 

CNRGV conserves relevant BAC and cDNA libraries of model and crop plants, such as Arabidopsis thaliana, Medicago truncatula, tomato, wheat, pepper, grapevine, rapeseed, maize, pea and sunflower. Despite advances in sequencing technologies, BAC libraries remains useful for precision map-based cloning, especially for complex plant genomes, polyploid or highly heterozygous.

 

 The main missions of CNRGV as a BRC are to:

 

  • Centralize and maintain plant genomic resources for model and crop plants
  • Distribute genomic resources and associated data at the international level
  • Provide high throughput screening technology

 

Over the years and evolution of technologies, the CNRGV has implemented new expertises to provide the scientific community with innovative and efficient services.

 

CNRGV offers a wide range of services for the study of plant genomes:   

 

  • Genomic samples storage & distribution  
  • Targeted BAC library construction & screening   
  • High molecular weight DNA extraction
  • Genome optical mapping    
  • Whole Genome Characterization, “From the seed to the genome”.
  • Targeted DNA fragment capture

 

Besides wet lab services, the CNRGV has developed analysis pipelines for genomic data assembly and validation.

 

Scientific environment and organization

 

From the very beginning, the CNRGV is both settled in the local and national environment, members of Carnot Plant2Pro, Genotoul and IBISA and RARe. But, also, largely opened to the International plant academic community and to private companies. The CNRGV is part of international consortia such as IWGSC and ICSG.

 

Following a formal approval and designation process by INRAE, the CNRGV is a labeled Collective Scientific Facilities or ISC (installations scientifiques collectives) due to the interest of its activities, the quality of its organization and the services offered.

 

Since its early years, the CNRGV has implemented a quality management system to process requests as efficiently as possible and to deliver the best possible results.

 

 

Fees for services are calculated according to the users’ status, regarding INRAE's pricing policy.