Quality characteristics of European avena genetic resources collections

Abstract

International audienceThe research project "Avena genetic resources for quality in human consumption" (AVEQ, 2007-2011) aimed at the agronomic and qualitative evaluation of European oat germplasm; for this purpose a working collection with more than 600 accessions, including modern commercial cultivars and wild species, was used. The working collection was split in two groups and field grown in 2008 and 2009 in seven different locations: Estonia, Sweden, Poland, France, Italy, Romania and Bulgaria. For each accession morphological and technological traits were registered. The results of this study indicated that modern varieties are significantly superior to old varieties and wild accessions in terms of yield and grain technological quality (seed weight and test weight). A wide variability was observed for quantitative and qualitative traits, and some genotypes potentially interesting for breeding programs were identified