PLANT GENETIC RESOURCES IN MEXICO: RECENT ADVANCES OF THE MEXICAN CACTUS PEAR NETWORK -                                                  C. Gallegos-Vazquez1, C. Mondragón-Jacobo2 & A. F. Barrientos-Priego3

1CRUCEN, Universidad Autónoma Chapingo, Mexico
2CE-Norte de Guanajuato, Instituto de Investigaciones Forestales,
Agrícolas y Pecuarias, Mexico
3 Departamento de Fitotecnia, Universidad Autónoma Chapingo, Mexico

Mexico is the country with the largest concentration of Opuntias in the world, with the diversity accounting to 205 taxa, 126 belonging to the Opuntia subgenus. Likewise Mexico is considered as the country with the highest number of cactus pear cultivars, which are conserved in family gardens and backyard orchards. The most outstanding accession is the genetic base for the actual commercial cactus pear cultivated area of about 60,000 ha, most of it distributed across the highlands of Central and North Central Mexico. The Mexican government implemented the National System of Plant Genetic Resources for Agriculture and Food (SINAREFI in Spanish) as a plan of action to identify, protect, conserve and utilize the genetic resources (GR) included in the National Plan. The Mexican Cactus Pear Network, constituted in May 2002, is part of this system. The priorities of this Network was set on morphological and molecular characterization of the national cactus pear germplasm, identification of plant material of commercial importance, in situ and ex situ organization and maintenance of commercial cultivars and their wild relatives in collections, facilitation of research and training activities connected to GR, and dissemination of information regarding knowledge and sustainable utilization of cactus pear GR. Some of the future priorities will be to implement strategies for the long term in situ conservation and improvement, to boost cactus pear breeding projects, and to organize a National Opuntia Repository, as well as other miscellaneous activities focused on the strengthening of the Network. In this presentation we discuss the advances and analyze the prospects and limitations of the Mexican Cactus Pear Network.