Umbellifer Crops Working Group
Vegetables Network
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Umbellifer Crops Working Group |
Vegetables Network
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Report of a Vegetables Network.
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Background information
In August 1997 an ad hoc group of workers interested in carrot held an ad hoc meeting, supported by ECPGR, in conjunction with the fifth meeting of the EUCARPIA Carrot Working Group hosted by the Department of Genetics, University of Agriculture, Kraków, Poland (see: Report, including information on several national collections [here]). The discussions led to the realization that within the group and national
programmes there was a broader interest in Umbellifers, in addition to carrot. The group decided it
would be logical and more efficient to combine all these interests into an Umbellifer Crops Working
Group. However, with such a potentially large number of genera within the Umbelliferae,
a decision was taken to limit interest and activities to crops and wild taxa within nine genera
including Anethum (dill), Apium (celery), Carum (caraway), Chaerophyllum
(chervil), Coriandrum (coriander), Daucus (carrot), Foeniculum (fennel),
Pastinaca (parsnip) and Petroselinum (parsley).
Working Group objectives
The Working Group agreed to focus its action on the following items:
Documentation
A questionnaire distributed to national coordinators, genebanks and curators of Umbellifer collections resulted in an Umbellifer Crops Working Group status report. The information on the European collections of the 9 genera and other Umbellifers is shown [here]. The
European Umbellifer Database (EUDB) has been developed by the Genetic Resources Unit at
Horticulture Research International (HRIGRU), Wellesbourne, UK. The database has been limited to
passport data stored in the FAO/IPGRI Multi-Crop Passport Descriptors format. The EUDB contains data
for 8426 accessions representing the 9 major Umbellifer crops and a range of the wild taxa from 17
institutions in 13 countries plus the Nordic Gene Bank (NGB). Currently there are no agreed ECPGR minimum characterization descriptors
for these crops. However, the EU GEN RES project partners, in collaboration with some national crop
coordinators, have developed minimum characterization descriptors for carrot/Daucus based on
the
IPGRI Descriptors for Wild and Cultivated Carrots (IPGRI 1998). Other descriptors lists are
available for celery, celeriac, dill and fennel (UPOV).
Link with EU project
Members of the ECPGR Umbellifer Crops Working Group were full partners
in the 5 year EU Carrot project
GEN RES CT99 - 105 (1999-2004). This project encompassed all aspects of genetic resources work
for this important crop including documentation, characterization, regeneration, evaluation, core
collection development and the collection of material to fill gaps. The project has carried out
screening projects to analyze dry matter, carotenes, sugars and nitrate in carrot roots, and to
evaluate responses to various diseases of carrot. Also work on the molecular evaluation of carrot was
carried out in INH Angers and BAZ Quedlinburg, and in RIVC Skierniewice/AU Kraków.
ECPGR supported
non-EU partners in project meetings and collaborative activities.
Regeneration
Several institutes offered to assist the Vavilov Institute in St. Petersburg (VIR), particularly in the regeneration of landraces of carrot. This collaboration has been particularly successful with 4 national programmes (France, Italy, Poland and UK) having regenerated > 150 accessions to date. The bulk of the seed produced was then returned to the VIR for long-term storage.
Identification of duplicates
The ad hoc meeting of the Umbellifer Group in Edinburgh in 2001 reviewed the question of the identification of duplicate material in the European collections. The Group proposed to identify the Most Original Sample (MOS) for the accessions of the wild taxa within the European collections. This work is ongoing and will provide information essential for future collection and in situ projects. The Group also agreed that duplicates in cultivated collections should be identified within national programmes, but for the immediate future material will be maintained in the collections rather than removed.
Safety-duplication
The importance of safety-duplication of all genetic resources accessions is recognized. A number of the partner institutes offered to use their facilities under bilateral "black box" agreements in order to achieve the maximum safety-duplication for these genera. Several bilateral "black box" agreements are now in place.
Collecting
Since 1997, the Polish Gene Bank, in collaboration with national genebanks in Greece, Moldova, Ukraine, Slovakia, Turkey and USDA, organized 24 expeditions during which 2121 accessions were collected including 533 accessions of 7 Umbellifer species. In 1999 national crop coordinators from Poland and Greece collaborated with colleagues from the USDA carrot programme, in the collection of wild and landrace Daucus in Greece, Poland, Syria and Turkey. During this 7 week collecting mission 547 accessions were collected. Collection in Syria and Turkey was carried out in collaboration with the national programmes. This collaboration with USDA was continued in 2000 with the Working Group member from France, joining a programme to collect in Portugal, organized by the Banco Portuguęs de Germoplasma Vegetal in Braga. During the period 1999 – 2002 other collecting missions were organized, respectively in: Czech Republic: collected landraces of dill, wild parsnip, wild Daucus. The main aim of the expeditions was aromatic species such as caraway, chervil; and in: Slovenia, where in one expedition a total of 1186 accessions were collected, 3% of which were Umbellifers.
Taxonomy
The taxonomy of the various genera, in particular Daucus,
poses considerable problems for collection curators in both the management of collections and the
distribution of invalidated material. Where possible, national Umbellifer representatives have identified
taxonomic experts who are willing to assist in studies of the taxonomic problems associated with
genetic resources collections.
Research
Several members of the Working Group have been collaborating with Dr Phil
Simon at the University of Wisconsin, USA, in developing the molecular characterization of carrot and
related wild Daucus taxa. This experience will benefit the molecular characterization work in the
EU GEN RES Carrot project. In Poland (Agriculture University at Kraków) the assessment of genetic
diversity in 31 carrot landraces from Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine, 5 carrot advanced cultivars from
the Polish Gene Bank collection (POLSKV) was carried out using the RAPD technique. For more information or comments: |
IPGRI and INIBAP
operate under the name Bioversity International.
PART I - DRAFT
