Identification and updating data of eligible AEGIS accessions in both wheat and rye species

Activity Coordinator: François Balfourier  Email

The project "Identification and updating data of eligible AEGIS accessions in both wheat and rye species (TRISECA)", submitted by the Wheat Working Group for funding under the Third Call of the Activity Grant Scheme, was selected by the Executive Committee and approved in May 2016.

Implementation

April 2018
The Final Activity Report and related data are now available:

Documentation status of the selected candidate accessions:

Summary of results:
In the TRISECA Activity, ECPGR members from 10 different countries planned to carry on the AEGIS initiative, by building a more representative European collection of both wheat and rye species. For Triticum, the effort was mainly focused on tetraploid species which are also very important species, in terms of diversity, for durum wheat improvement. All selected accessions, which were not yet well documented in terms of C&E data, were sown in the field for evaluation.
A total of 885 candidate accessions were retained, divided in 350 rye and 535 wheat accessions. According to the objectives defined at the beginning of the Activity, half of the wheat accessions (266/535) were chosen within tetraploid species. Regarding the status of these accessions (SAMPSTAT descriptor), due to the status of rye accessions (mainly semi-natural populations), we observe a majority of traditional cultivars or landraces.
Details of the documentation status of selected candidate AEGIS accessions were provided in Excel tables for wheat and rye respectively (see above). The full set of accessions is now globally well documented for passport data, according to the MCPD v2 list. For characterization and evaluation data, some descriptors are well documented, for others some efforts are still needed.
After completion of the Activity, by 15 March 2018, a total of 267 new accessions from 4 countries were flagged as AEGIS in EURISCO: Bulgaria (80 accessions), Czech Republic (53), Latvia (6) and Romania (128). For the other countries the process was still under way, with actions yet to be taken at different levels of the process (WG member, National Coordinator or National Focal Point).

January 2018
After the TRISECA Activity meeting (October 2017), the partners of TRISECA checked their own data and then sent them (November 2017) to the Activity Coordinator. All individual partners’ data were compiled in three TRISECA datasets: one for passport data, and two for characterization and evaluation data, for wheat and rye, respectively. The three datasets were then sent to genebanks manager of both species for updating of the respective databases (December 2017). Finally, all partners were invited 1) to provide each respective National Coordinator with the list of recommended accessions for consideration and formal inclusion in the European Collection, and 2) to check that the EURISCO National Inventory Focal Point, under instruction from the National Coordinator, has officially included the accessions into the European collection by flagging them as part of AEGIS in EURISCO.

October 2017
The meeting of the Activity Partners, organized in collaboration with the Plant Breeding and Acclimatization Institute (IHAR), took place 3-4 October 2017 in Radzików, Poland, bringing  together 11 participants (9 ECPGR-funded, 1 self-funded and the ECPGR Secretary). The status of AEGIS candidate accessions selected per country members and the update of both passport and C&E data were presented by each partners. The meeting discussed the representativity of the full AEGIS wheat and rye collection and studied carefully the possible gaps within passport data, C&E data and geographical origins of accessions. The second day was dedicated to discussing the management of this AEGIS collection and the future agenda of the TRISECA Activity until the end of 2017. Possible new activities of the Wheat Working Group were proposed and considered in order to prepare the potential last call for Phase IX. The fullfilment of the objectives of Phase IX in the Wheat Working Group was presented. Finally, the meeting discussed the objectives for Phase X that will be presented at the upcoming ECPGR Networking  meeting to be held in Ljubljana. On the last day, the participants visited the genebank facilities of the Plant Breeding and Acclimatization Institute in Radzików.

June 2017
The lists of candidate accessions have been finalized by 9 partners out of 11 (total of 751 accessions).
Passport data have been updated by 5 partners according to the Multi-crop Passport Descriptors V.2.
Partners are currently updating their characterization and evaluation (C&E) data, using either data obtained in previous years or new data from field crop experimentation in 2017.
All data updates are expected to be finalized by August 2017. A synthesis will then be prepared for the meeting of the TRISECA Activity Partners, to be held 3 4 October 2017, Radzików, Poland. The meeting is organized in collaboration with the Plant Breeding and Acclimatization Institute (IHAR) - National Research Institute.

November 2016
The first step of the Activity (choice of candidate accessions to be included in the AEGIS collection) started in September 2016. At the beginning of August, the Activity Coordinator had sent to partners the background documents to be used for the selection of accessions. Lists of TRISECA accessions are being finalized.
The next step will be to improve passport data during winter, then characterization and evaluation (C&E) data during spring 2017, using field evaluation. C&E traits will be the same as those used last year in the TRAID Activity for wheat and those from the Secale Database for rye.

ECPGR Wheat Working Group