The Hispano Luso Institute for Agricultural Research (CIALE) is the headquarters of the first seedBank dedicated to the conservation and management of seeds belonging to threatened flora species in Castilla y León, besides being the first national institution that preserves spores and fungal mycelium of interest.

The seedBank of the University of Salamanca, created in 2007 and managed by the Group of Palynology and Plant Conservation, under the guidance of Professor PhD. José Sánchez Sánchez, is a dynamic instrument, since it preserves not only living plant material, but also fungal material as spores and mycelium, requiring previous studies of viability/germination and genetic variability.

The active nature of the seedBank is reflected in a continuous work with this living material, which require a knowledge of its management within a broader context that includes previous studies of each specie biodiversity in terms of field work and mollecular biology analysis, which are not so abundant when taking into consideration threatened flora and fungi.

In the CIALE we have two rooms and a laboratory dedicated to the seedBank, one for preparing the material collected (cleaning, sieving, dehydration, weighing, germination, etc.) and the other for seed conservation (where we keep the accessions in cold rooms at different temperatures).

Furthermore, adequate facilities are available for carrying out feasibility tests and different studies in order to discriminate the genetic diversity of the incorporated accessions, together with the obtaining of living plant in the greenhouse, for possible reintroductions.