The exterior of the N.I. Vavilov Institute in St. Petersburg, Russia in a photo taken this past spring.
Ivy growth is visibile in the deteriorating roof's valley. .
It took most of the last century to build one of the finest potato germplasm repositories in the world. Soon it may be a worthless, genetic morgue. All of it is potentially useful to ward off an array of potato diseases and to make the crop grow better. As potato diversity continues to narrow, entire potato crops are in danger of being wiped out by a new disease or pest. The potato collections at the Vavilov Institute and elsewhere serve as a source of useful genes that can provide resistance against aggressive late blight pathogen strains as well as provide other valuable, genetic traits.