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The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), Copenhagen, Denmark has created a prototype portal which provides access to a collation of data (over 85 million records) from a number of countries and organizations under two categories: (i) Taxonomic names. The “Electronic Catalogue of Taxonomic Names” is currently under development, but already includes and makes available data for over 486,000 scientific names and 217,000 common names, with more to be added, and (ii) Specimens and Observations, providing access to over 40 million records of occurrences of different organisms. Wherever possible these records include information about the locality where the organisms were found and are used to generate maps of the distribution of these occurrences. |
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The PLANTS database is an example of a national directory, providing standardised information concerning the vascular plants, mosses, liverworts, hornworts, and lichens of the USA and its territories (USDA, NRCS, 2005). It includes names, plant symbols, checklists, distributional data, species abstracts, characteristics, images, plant links, references, crop information, and automated tools. It also provides downloadable species checklists for each state. |
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The Botanical Files database provides data on the possibility of crop species out-crossing with wild and weedy relatives, and with conventional landraces and other varieties of the same crop plant. These files, developed for sugar beet and maize in Europe only, are based on maps that were established by local botanists using their national or regional flora and information from researchers (especially breeders). |
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The ongoing discovery of new Bt toxin genes and the rapid accumulation of information on their insecticidal activities prompted the Canadian Forest Service to construct a Database on Bt Toxin Specificity. The search engine allows information retrieval based either on Bt toxin bioassays or 237 individual cry genes. The search outcome is a list table including the insect species used for the bioassay of the specified toxin, the method used for the bioassay and its result, and the bibliographic reference for each bioassay/toxin gene. |
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Knowledge of proven routes of commodity and environmental GM contamination is invaluable for the improvement of biosafety risk management and monitoring procedures.
The GM Contamination Register () is a joint initiative by GeneWatch UK and Greenpeace International to record all incidents of contamination arising from the intentional or accidental release of GMOs. Only publicly documented incidents are recorded in the database, the sources of which include peer-reviewed scientific articles, national newspapers and media, and press releases from governments, industry and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). |
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