Field experiments with Avena genetic resources – an european project (AVEQ)

In a cooperative project with fifteen partners from nine European countries, in 2008, genebank material and current commercial varieties (323 cultivated and 17 wild accessions) were evaluated for traits related to quality in human consumption, mycotoxins and cold tolerance. The work is done in 10 work packages: 1) Project management and coordination; 2) Selection and multiplication of a project working collection; 3) Field experiments and sampling seeds for quality analysis; 4) Field experiments with artificial Fusarium inoculation; 5) Fusarium and mycotoxin analysis; 6) Analysis for protein – including Avenins, fat and minerals; 7) Analysis for dietary fibre and ß-glucan; 8) Analysis for antioxidants, including Avenanthramides; 9) Analysis for cold tolerance; 10) Project documentation and internet portal. In Work package 3, “Field experiments and sampling seeds for quality analysis” were involved seven countries distributed all over Europe (Bulgaria, Estonia, France, Italy, Poland, Romania and Sweden). The activities from WP3 were coordinated by Romanian partner. Field experiments were laid out as augmented block designs with 11 standards (Argentina, Auteuil, Belinda, Evora, Genziana, Jaak, Krezus, Mina, Mures and Saul) in five replications. Plot size ranged, from 2.0m2 to 3.0m2 . The descriptors observed by all partners were: days to heading, days to maturity, crop height, lodging at immature stage, lodging at mature stage, panicle shape, occurrence of diseases, lemma colour, yield, seed weight and test weight, Harvest results (yield, seed weight, test weight, moisture) were put on line into a project information system (http://eadb.bafz.de/aveqprod/). All data will be made available with the end of the project in the European Avena Database (http://eadb.bafz.de) Acknowledgements: This project is funded by the European Commission, DG AGRI within the framework of council regulation 870/2004 and co-funded by Peter Kölln KGaA, Elmshorn, Germany, Emco spol. s. r. o., Prague, Czech Republic, and Gemeinschaft zur Förderung der privaten deutschen Pflanzenzüchtung e.V. (GFP), Bonn, Germany

Genetic characterization of European potato onion (Allium cepa var Aggregatum G. Don) collections

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Analysis of landrace cultivation in Europe: A means to support in situ conservation of crop diversity

[EN] During the last century, the progressive substitution of landraces with modern, high yielding varieties, led to a dramatic reduction of in situ conserved crop diversity in Europe. Nowadays there is limited and scattered information on where landraces are cultivated. To fill this gap and lay the groundwork for a regional landrace in situ conservation strategy, information on more than 19,335 geo-referenced landrace cultivation sites were collated from 14 European countries. According to collected data, landraces of 141 herbaceous and 48 tree species are cultivated across Europe: Italy (107 species), Greece (93), Portugal (45) and Spain (44) hold the highest numbers. Common bean, onion, tomato, potato and apple are the species of main interest in the covered countries. As from collected data, about 19.8% of landrace cultivation sites are in protected areas of the Natura 2000 network. We also got evidence that 16.7% and 19.3% of conservation varieties of agricultural species and vegetables are currently cultivated, respectively. Results of the GIS analysis allowed the identification of 1261 cells (25 km × 25 km) including all the cultivation sites, distributed across all European biogeographical regions. Data of this study constitute the largest ever produced database of in situ-maintained landraces and the first attempt to create an inventory for the entire Europe. The availability of such resource will serve for better planning of actions and development of policies to protect landraces and foster their use.This project was funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Grant Agreement No: 774271 `Networking, partnerships and tools to enhance in situ conservation of European plant genetic resources' (Farmer's Pride).Raggi, L.; Pacicco, LC.; Caproni, L.; Álvarez-Muñiz, C.; Annamaa, K.; Barata, AM.; Batir-Rusu, D.... (2022). Analysis of landrace cultivation in Europe: A means to support in situ conservation of crop diversity. Biological Conservation. 267. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2022.10946026