Mummies aren’t the only research resources threatened in Egypt, after a tumultuous week of anti-government protests that has resulted in a security vacuum. The Egyptian Deserts Gene Bank, a seed and plant collection in the North Sinai region, was looted, according to the Global Crop Diversity Trust. The vandals stole equipment and destroyed the bank’s cooling system.
According to a Worldwatch Institute blog, the bank is a repository for Egyptian desert plants, including wild fruit and medicinal plants, and also includes a herbarium, a tissue culture laboratory and an 18-acre field. Many of the plants and seeds housed there are not found in another Egyptian seed bank in Giza, which has not been looted, according to the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog.
“This is yet another sobering reminder of how fragile the diversity in genebanks can be, and the importance of safety duplication,” said a statement on the website of Global Crop Diversity Trust.
Cary Fowler, director of Global Crop Diversity Trust, says the bank’s collection includes wild relatives of tomato, eggplant and watermelon. Damage to the cooling system wouldn’t necessarily cause immediate harm to the seed collection. “The seeds would not instantly die,” he says, but “this could certainly damage them.”
There have also been reports of looting in Egyptian museums over the past few days. The country’s most prominent archaeologist Zahi Hawass – who was yesterday appointed Minister of Antiquities – said that looters at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo robbed the gift shop and damaged a statuette of King Tutankhamun. Two mummies were also destroyed, their heads torn off and bones strewn across the floor, according to MSNBC.
Update: According to a comments posted on the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog by an employee of the Egyptian Deserts Gene Bank, ElSayed ElAzazi, the seed collection wasn’t damaged. “[E]very seed is still as it is and can be repaired,” he writes.
Update: ElAzazi sent photographs showing damage of the Egyptian Deserts Gene Bank to the Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog.
Images of Egyptian Deserts Gene Bank from Agricultural Biodiversity Weblog