World Vegetable Center eggplant collection: origin, composition, seed dissemination and utilization in breeding

[EN] Eggplant is the fifth most economically important solanaceous crop after potato, tomato, pepper, and tobacco. Apart from the well-known brinjal eggplant (Solanum melongena L.), two other under-utilized eggplant species, the scarlet eggplant (S. aethiopicum L.) and the gboma eggplant (S. macrocarpon L.) are also cultivated. The taxonomy and identification of eggplant wild relatives is challenging for breeders due to the large number of related species, but recent phenotypic and genetic data and classification in primary, secondary, and tertiary genepools, as well as information on the domestication process and wild progenitors, facilitates their utilization in breeding. The World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) holds a large public germplasm collection of eggplant, which includes the three cultivated species and more than 30 eggplant wild relatives, with more than 3,200 accessions collected from 90 countries. Over the last 15 years, more than 10,000 seed samples from the Center's eggplant collection have been shared with public and private sector entities, including other genebanks. An analysis of the global occurrences and genebank holdings of cultivated eggplants and their wild relatives reveals that the WorldVeg genebank holds the world's largest public collection of the three cultivated eggplant species. The composition, seed dissemination and utilization of germplasm from the Center's collection are highlighted. In recent years more than 1,300 accessions of eggplant have been characterized for yield and fruit quality parameters. Further screening for biotic and abiotic stresses in eggplant wild relatives is a priority, as is the need to amass more comprehensive knowledge regarding wild relatives' potential for use in breeding. However, as is the case for many other crops, wild relatives are highly under-represented in the global conservation system of eggplant genetic resources.Funding for the World Vegetable Center’s general research activities is provided by core donors: Republic of China (Taiwan), UK aid, United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), Germany, Thailand, Philippines, Korea, and Japan. In addition we like to thank Global Crop Diversity Trust for contribution to meetings and to this open-access publication.Taher, D.; Solberg, S.; Prohens Tomás, J.; Chou, Y.; Rakha, M.; Wu, T. (2017). World Vegetable Center eggplant collection: origin, composition, seed dissemination and utilization in breeding. Frontiers in Plant Science. 8. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2017.01484S1484

World Vegetable Center Eggplant Collection: Origin, Composition, Seed Dissemination and Utilization in Breeding

Eggplant is the fifth most economically important solanaceous crop after potato, tomato, pepper, and tobacco. Apart from the well-known brinjal eggplant (Solanum melongena L.), two other under-utilized eggplant species, the scarlet eggplant (S. aethiopicum L.) and the gboma eggplant (S. macrocarpon L.) are also cultivated. The taxonomy and identification of eggplant wild relatives is challenging for breeders due to the large number of related species, but recent phenotypic and genetic data and classification in primary, secondary, and tertiary genepools, as well as information on the domestication process and wild progenitors, facilitates their utilization in breeding. The World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg) holds a large public germplasm collection of eggplant, which includes the three cultivated species and more than 30 eggplant wild relatives, with more than 3,200 accessions collected from 90 countries. Over the last 15 years, more than 10,000 seed samples from the Center’s eggplant collection have been shared with public and private sector entities, including other genebanks. An analysis of the global occurrences and genebank holdings of cultivated eggplants and their wild relatives reveals that the WorldVeg genebank holds the world’s largest public collection of the three cultivated eggplant species. The composition, seed dissemination and utilization of germplasm from the Center’s collection are highlighted. In recent years more than 1,300 accessions of eggplant have been characterized for yield and fruit quality parameters. Further screening for biotic and abiotic stresses in eggplant wild relatives is a priority, as is the need to amass more comprehensive knowledge regarding wild relatives’ potential for use in breeding. However, as is the case for many other crops, wild relatives are highly under-represented in the global conservation system of eggplant genetic resources

The World Vegetable Center Okra (<i>Abelmoschus esculentus</i>) Core Collection as a Source for Flooding Stress Tolerance Traits for Breeding

Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) is a heat tolerant vegetable crop with high economic and nutritional importance in parts of Asia, Africa, and America. The okra biodiversity held in gene bank collections could be mined for traits for breeding more stress tolerant and nutritional cultivars. An okra core collection of 166 accessions comprising A. esculentus, A. moschatus, A. caillei, and A. manihot has been assembled from the World Vegetable Center germplasm collection (840 accessions) based on diversity analysis with 20 microsatellite markers. A selection of A. esculentus accessions of the core collection (75 accessions) and 20 breeder-selected genotypes have been screened for variation of their response to flooding stress under field conditions using a high throughput phenotyping system. Growth increment per day and changes of physiological indices were measured before, during, and after application of 9 days of flooding stress. Several accessions showed only a small reduction in daily growth increment during flooding. Across the germplasm panel, maintained growth was correlated with maintained normalized differential vegetation index and was negatively correlated with plant senescence index. Accessions with maintained growth and health under flooding were selected for future further analysis and use in breeding

The World Vegetable Center Amaranthus germplasm collection: Core collection development and evaluation of agronomic and nutritional traits

Amaranth (Amaranthus spp.) is an underutilized crop increasing in popularity as a grain and as a leafy vegetable. It is rich in protein, minerals, and vitamins, and adapts well to a range of production systems. Currently, the lack of improved cultivars limits the use of the crop. Breeding-improved cultivars requires access to large collections of amaranth biodiversity stored in genebanks. The task of searching such vast collections for traits of interest can be eased by generating core collections, which display the diversity of large collections in a much smaller germplasm set. The World Vegetable Center amaranth collection contains around 1,000 accessions of 13 species; among them, there are 281 accessions of four species important for use as vegetable amaranth in Africa (A. cruentus, A. hypochondriacus, A. caudatus, and A. dubius). Based on single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) marker genotype diversity, a core collection (CC) of 76 accessions, cultivars, and selections was assembled. To a large extent, it represents the diversity of the whole collection. The CC was evaluated for yield and nutritional parameters during the cool and warm seasons in Tanzania and Taiwan and a pretest for variation of drought tolerance in the CC has been performed. Cultivar Madiira 2, an improved cultivar developed for vegetable production in Africa, outperformed all other tested cultivars in terms of yield stability, but several CC accessions had higher yield, lower wilting score, and higher nutrient content than Madiira 2. This indicates the core collection can be used for further improvement of amaranth cultivars