Exploring European carrot diversity through publicprivate partnerships in EVA Carrot

The European Cooperative Programme for Plant Genetic Resources (ECPGR) aims at ensuring the conservation and utilization of plant genetic resources in Europe through collaborative activities. The ECPGR European Evaluation Network (EVA) was established in 2019 with financial support from the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture and brings together different stakeholders in public-private research partnerships at the pre-competitive stage, to jointly generate standardized characterization and evaluation data on crop accessions present in European genebanks, which are often poorly characterized and consequently underutilized. In this way, EVA promotes sustainable use of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, harnessing existing agrobiodiversity to facilitate the adaptation of European agriculture to climate change and to contribute towards achieving related sustainable development goals (SDGs). One of five crop-specific EVA networks, EVA Carrot (https://www.ecpgr.cgiar.org/) joins 14 partners from eight European countries, including eight private breeding companies. Following up on the activities of CarrotDiverse, the consortium evaluated 60 carrot accessions from four different genebanks over two years in multilocation trials in the field, greenhouse and laboratory to create in-depth characterization and evaluation data with an emphasis on biotic stresses and agronomic traits of interest for breeders. Genotyping these accessions using a SNP genotyping array, genotyping by sequencing (GBS) and whole genome sequencing (WGS) generated valuable data for population genetic studies. All network partners bring their relevant expertise to the project and thus, working together on these evaluations, the network jointly creates a large pool of knowledge, which will be useful in developing carrots suitable for diverse agro-ecologies and able to cope with the challenges of a changing climate. Here we present initial results from the EVA Carrot network and perspectives for an improved management and valorization of genetic resources

Domestication of Eggplants: A Phenotypic and Genomic Insight

International audienceAgriculture, and in particular systematic and repeated cultivation of plants, is one of the main characteristics of post-Neolithic sedentary human societies. Deciphering the domestication pathways that have allowed for extensive cultivation of crops is of great scientific importance: first, because it can reveal the patterns and processes of human-induced selection and contribute to the knowledge of the genetic basis of adaptive traits, and second, because identifying the times and locations of domestication is crucial to the understanding of our own evolutionary history, in particular for the last ca. 12,000 years. Finally, the identification of genes involved in domestication could offer potential for future crop improvement. In some instances, knowledge from one crop can be transferred to another to reveal broad patterns, as well as the extent to which parallel evolution has given rise to the crops we rely on today. There have been a number of studies into eggplant domestication, but clarifying the routes and even the number of domestications has until today been limited. This is due to (1) partial knowledge on the identity of eggplant wild relatives, (2) sparse sampling (both in terms of species/accessions and types of data), and (3) inadequacy of the statistical tools used for phylogenetic/demographic inferences. However, the most recent analyses of Solanum melongena point to a single domestication and significant crop-wild-weedy gene flow, which likely hampered earlier phylogenetic attempts. Here, we provide an overview of the current understanding of the domestication frameworks for the three eggplants, Solanum melongena, S. aethiopicum and S. macrocarpon. First, we detail the phenotypical traits of the crops and of their wild progenitors. Then, we detail the historical hypotheses on domestication of eggplants and, when possible, we re-evaluate them in the light of the genomic data generated within the last couple of years

Crossability and Diversity of Eggplants and Their Wild Relatives

International audienceEggplants and related germplasm are a barely unveiled genetic treasure, for reasons developed in Chap. 10. Diversity and interspecific crossability researches focused so far on Solanum melongena L., the economic importance of which towers that of the indigenous African S. aethiopicum L. and S. macrocarpon L. and which consequently attracted most of geneticists’ and breeders’ attention. However, as S. melongena shares many connections with eggplant germplasm as a whole, this chapter pays as much attention to this species as to the other cultivated and wild ones. Their genetic and phenotypic diversity is surveyed and critically analysed in order to place the reader at the crossroads between the present knowledge and desirable future researches in terms of both traits of interest to breeders and methods for assessing the diversity. The dense corpus of information about interspecific crossability is organised across several axes. Conventional sexual crosses and somatic hybridisations are presented separately, given both methods yield genetically different interspecific material. The section devoted to sexual crosses begins with a survey of the interspecific barriers, and with an overview of the crossing results that are discussed in their methodological dimensions, in particular the criteria assessing the success or failure of the crossing experiments. Then, the crossing results are structured according to the combinations of crosses within and between cultivated and wild material. Species crossability is discussed with regard to the genepool concept and to relationship between species assessed by phylogenetics. The section ends up with interspecific hybrid by-products such as male sterilities and information on traits genetics. The chapter turns then to somatic hybridisations; this part is structured according to groups of species (e.g. New World species) used as fusion partners of S. melongena, the pivotal taxon for most of the fusion experiments. The conclusions outline the limits of the present knowledge on eggplants germplasm diversity and crossability and suggest potential new research routes on these topics