Kürşad Özbek

Turkey is a country of great importance in terms of plant genetic diversity with 3649 endemic of 11707 plant taxons worldwide. The wealth we have had been used illegally since 1500s and our country can’t claim any rights from the benefits obtained. The main reason of this is that the species in our country haven’t been identified at molecular level yet.  The plant barcoding techniques have been used in the World for about 15 years; however there isn’t a large-scale work about this area in our country. Therefore, the necessity for National DNA Barcoding Project in our country have been arisen for the applicability of one of the most important objectives of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity’s principle “the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources”. Through the proposed project, the establishment of the National DNA Barcoding Database and the registration of the DNA Barcoding Data of the project’s prioritized plant species are aimed. In this context, international database will be investigated and also international information flow will be provided via the created database. Moreover, the biggest shortcoming of the Standard Material Transfer Agreement (SMTA) being used will be removed thanks to the addition of the barcode data prepared for this purpose. Through this project, more effective fighting against biosmuggling and bioterrorism on behalf of our country will be provided thanks to the forthcoming results because of the identification of our country-specific genetic resources.

Ministry of Food Agriculture and Livestock

2017-Sürekli