Genetic Diversity of Population
The biological diversity of animals, plants, and microorganisms is of fundamental importance to human survival. The term "gene resources" may be defined as the genetic diversity that is very essential for meeting the society's needs in perpetuity. This diversity is expressed in the differences between species as well as in the variation among individuals that comprise a species. Gene resources include wild and domestic species having many species of no commercial value. Every year gene resources are utilised to provide crores of rupees worth of new and familiar products e.g., food, clothing, shelter, pharmaceuticals, energy and hundreds of industrial products. You will be aware that a wide range of species and their products are required for medical and other research. Agricultural, forestry and related industries are dependent, whenever needed on appropriate diversity as for example resistance to plant diseases. It is this diversity that sets the limits to which both wild and domestic species can successfully adapt to changes involving:
- Weather, insects and disease,
- Technology,
- Demand and,
- Human preferences.
Most of the biological diversity is still found in natural ecosystems whose survival is dependent, in large part, on the diversity within them.