What is Genesys?
Genesys is a global online portal to information about PGRFA conserved in genebanks. Its aim is to support global food and nutritional security by making crop diversity more easily discoverable. As of January 2026, it holds:
- 4.5 million accession records
- From over 580 genebanks around the world
- 900+ trait datasets and subsets
- 440+ characterization and evaluation datasets
Anyone can explore the data online or download it in bulk, subject to the Terms and Conditions of Use.
Genesys is managed by the Crop Trust, is free for everyone to visit and search, and is open to any institute that conserves PGRFA and wants to share information on its collection.
In short, Genesys is at the same time a portal, a means for discovery, and a connector. It serves two overlapping audiences:
- Users of genebank data, such as plant breeders, researchers, conservationists and policymakers looking for PGRFA to work with or evidence to inform decisions. They can search across many collections at once, discover accessions of interest and reach out to genebanks for material.
- Genebanks (Data Providers) all over the world can make their collection discoverable in one place, align with international information-sharing standards and receive requests for material.
For the user of genebank data, Genesys offers several discovery tools:
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| AI-powered search | Searches across 4.5 million+ accessions based on their passport data |
| Similarity Search | Finds accessions that are similar to a given accession based on their passport data |
| Climate Search | Identifies accessions which were collected from places with specified climatic conditions |
| Subsetting Tool | Lets users define custom subsets of accessions based on environmental variables. See the Subsetting Tool guide for details. |
What Genesys is not
Here is what stays outside Genesys, so you know exactly where our role ends:
- Genesys is not a genebank. It does not accept, store or maintain any plant material. All seeds, tissue cultures and other germplasm listed on Genesys are managed by the genebanks that shared their data.
- Genesys does not handle phytosanitary processes. Import permits, phytosanitary certificates and quarantine clearance are the responsibility of the genebank that provided the data.
- Genesys does not issue material transfer agreements. When a user requests material from a genebank that shared data on Genesys, it is that genebank that issues the necessary paperwork.
- Genesys does not own the data. Data Providers retain full intellectual property rights over the records they publish.
- Genesys does not coordinate shipping or payments. Once a request for material reaches a genebank through Genesys, the ensuing process is handled between the genebank and the requester.
Our story
We started building Genesys in 2008, with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. This early development was a collaboration between Bioversity International, the Secretariat of the ITPGRFA, and the Crop Trust.
The first Genesys portal was launched in 2011. At the time, it included information from three of the largest genebank networks: ECPGR's EURISCO, CGIAR's SINGER and USDA's GRIN. These collections represented about a third of the world's total genebank holdings at the time.
Things evolved in 2012 when a task force, which later became the Genesys Advisory Committee, recommended that the Crop Trust be the legal entity responsible for Genesys. After three more years of development, we published an updated portal that allowed partner organizations to provide continuous updates to their data.
Since then, the Genesys community has grown considerably. New users and Data Providers join all the time, bringing more information on genebank accessions to more people all over the world.
We are still growing and improving Genesys. Our future goals include adding more Data Providers, making our search tools even better, and expanding the types of data that Genesys offers. These are improvements Genesys stakeholders have asked for, and we are excited to implement them. As a user of the information in Genesys, your perspective is the most valuable guide for our future development.
Integration with other systems
To ensure data consistency and minimise duplication of effort, Genesys is integrated with other major systems used by the global PGRFA community.
Genesys and FAO WIEWS
The World Information and Early Warning System on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (FAO WIEWS) is FAO's system for monitoring and reporting on PGRFA. It serves a different purpose from Genesys and the two systems thus complement each other.
| FAO WIEWS | Genesys | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary purpose | Country-level monitoring and reporting on the conservation and use of PGRFA, including SDG indicator 2.5.1 and the Second Global Plan of Action | Accession-level discovery of germplasm held in genebanks |
| Main contributors | National Focal Points appointed by governments | Individual genebanks and aggregating networks |
| Granularity | Institute-level and country-level summaries; some accession-level passport data | Detailed accession-level passport, characterization, evaluation and image data |
| Managed by | FAO | Crop Trust |
The most concrete point of contact between the two systems is the WIEWS INSTCODE, a globally unique identifier assigned by FAO to institutes that conserve PGRFA. Genesys uses this same identifier to recognize genebanks, which aligns reporting across the two systems.
Genesys and GLIS
The Global Information System (GLIS) of the ITPGRFA issues Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) for PGRFA accessions, giving each accession a persistent, citable, globally unique identifier.
The integration between Genesys and GLIS works this way:
- DOI Registration: Genebanks register their own DOIs through GLIS.
- Automatic Sync: When an updated record containing a GLIS DOI is uploaded to Genesys, Genesys automatically sends GLIS the URL of the corresponding Genesys page, and makes the latest data available to GLIS for syncing.
- Cross-checking: Both systems use
INSTCODEto ensure records match.
This allows a single, well-maintained record in Genesys to serve discoverability across multiple systems without duplicate data entry.
Only register DOIs for accessions you are happy to make publicly discoverable. If an accession needs to stay private or restricted in your genebank, do not register a DOI for it. If in doubt, refer to the sensitive-data guidance in What is passport data? before registering.
Where the data comes from
Genesys brings together some of the world's largest databases of PGRFA. We collaborate closely with regional genebank networks and international organizations, such as the ECPGR and the CGIAR genebanks, which update thousands of records every year. In addition, many individual national genebanks publish their collection information on Genesys.