Exploitation of Cucurbita local germplasm for sustainable agriculture (Cucurbitlocal)
Activity Coordinator: Maria Raffaella Ercolano Email
The project "Exploitation of Cucurbita local germplasm for sustainable agriculture (Cucurbitlocal)", submitted by the Cucurbits Working Group for funding under the Fourth Call of the Activity Grant Scheme for Phase X, was approved by the Executive Committee in December 2020.
- Activity proposal (323,7 KB)
- Letter of award (127,6 KB)
Implementation
March 2024
The final Activity report is available [here].
2023
A comparative trial for drought tolerance was carried out in Spain with the Cucurbitlocal Activity accessions.
The University of Napoli (UNINA), in collaboration with UPV, Valencia has been testing 10 Cucurbita accessions for drought tolerance in comparative trials with two different irrigation treatments. Evaluations are in progress.
A paper on Cucurbitlocal was published in USDA's Cucurbit Genetics Cooperative Report:
Chikh-Rouhou H, Lohwasser U, Pico-Sirvent B, León AF, García-Martínez S, Guadagno A, Amoroso C, Ercolano M. 2023. Cucurbitlocal – A collaborative initiative to strengthen valorization of Cucurbita local germplasm for sustainable agriculture. Cucurbit Genetics Cooperative Report 46: 33-34. url: https://cucurbit.info/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/CGC46_completereport.pdf
December 2022
Morphological characterization of 12 Cucurbita accessions was completed at the University of Naples, Italy. A trial with two different irrigation treatments allowed to identify a potential genotype tolerant to drought.
October 2021
The second meeting of the Activity “Cucurbitlocal’ was held online on 28 October 2021. Results of characterization and preliminary evaluation of Cucurbita accessions were presented by the German, Italian and Tunisian partners. Accession to be include in AEGIS have been selected by the German genebank. Evaluations in Tunisia focused on low water regime conditions and powdery mildew tolerance. A second and more complete round of evaluations is planned for the next year, also with exchanges of accessions between partners.
A report of the meeting is available here (200,6 KB).
February 2021
The first Cucurbitlocal meeting was held online on Friday, 26 February.