Gene bank

Gene banks are a means of preserving genetic material, be it plant or animal. In plants, this could be freezing cuts from the plant, or the seeds themselves. In animals, this is the freezing of sperm and eggs in zoological freezers until further need. This is one way scientists have prevented a gene family line from being wiped out. In plants, it is possible to unfreeze the material and sow it, however, in animals, a living female is required for artificial insemination. Despite this, it has proven very difficult to utilize the genes after freezing. Recent reports have shown that using material from frozen sexual cells are possible, for example, Jazz, the African Wildcat kitten which was born to a domestic cat through gene banks.