The genetic diversity of sweet potato [Ipomoea batatas (L.) Lam.] and its wild relatives has been collected and conserved in germplasm collections worldwide and explored employing several tools. The characterization of crops diversity through morphological tools produce useful information. However, the use of conventional morphological descriptions exhibits limitations due to the...
Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp. commonly known as pigeonpea, red gram or gungo pea is an important grain legume crop, particularly in rain-fed agricultural regions in the semi-arid tropics, including Asia, Africa and the Caribbean. This paper provides a baseline for the study of the domestication and early history of C. cajan, through reviewing its modern wild distribution, seed...
Seed certification of barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) involves scoring morphological characteristics to determine the variety in field plots which is expensive and time consuming. In order to establish whether molecular tests can identify the barley variety we have developed a molecular test to be used on seed. The molecular test genotypes the seed samples using 38 Single Nucleotide...
Rye (Secale cereale L.) was for centuries the economically most important crop in Fennoscandia (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden). Historical records tell of a range of different types adapted to climate and varying cultivation practices. Genetic analyses of genebank maintained landrace rye have yet failed, with a few exceptions, to detect differentiation between rye types...
Medics (Medicago spp.) are among the most important pasture legumes of temperate regions. Lebanon is considered as a part of the Mediterranean biodiversity hotspot in Medics. Its flora including more than 35 species of medics, most of which, not unlike this country’s flora, are threatened. To alleviate these threats, large accessions of Medicago were collected for ex situ...
Crop wild relatives (CWR) have been increasingly used as a genetic resource in crop improvement programs, thus, their conservation is essential for future sustainable agriculture and food security. Generally, CWR are threatened but their conservation has just recently come to global attention. Ex situ conservation (to ensure the availability of material to plant breeders and...
Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is an important staple crop for smallholder farmers, particularly in Eastern and Southern Africa. To support common bean breeding and seed dissemination, a high throughput SNP genotyping platform with 1500 established SNP assays has been developed at a genotyping service provider which allows breeders without their own genotyping infrastructure...
High molecular weight glutenin subunits plays an important role in conditioning the end-use quality of wheat products. The aim of the study was to determine the composition of HMW glutenin subunits, occurrence frequency of theses subunits and the potential of the end—use quality in spring wheat. The analysis included 81 European cultivars of spring wheat with a potential use in...
The frequency at which seed accessions are monitored for viability during storage in genebanks (reciprocal of the monitoring interval) must balance timely detection of loss in viability against monitoring cost (seed depletion and staff resource). Up to three decades of genebank seed germination test results of diverse grasses maintained in the International Livestock Research...
Barley has been continuously cultivated in the Canary archipelago for millennia, and to this day landrace barley is the preferred choice for cultivation. We have morphologically and genetically characterized 57 landraces collected during the twenty-first century and conserved in genebanks. The majority of accessions were of the six-row type. Although landraces from the same...
In 1975, the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources created the first internationally linked system of genebanks, known as the Registry of Base Collections (RBC), to conserve plant germplasm and make it available globally for agricultural research and development. Over time, international efforts shifted away from enhancing and building the RBC toward other means to...
In crop centers of origin and diversity, often biotic and abiotic conditions vary across the landscape creating the possibility for local adaptation of crops, whereby local landraces perform better than non-local ones under local conditions. By studying patterns of local adaptation we can better understand the degree of adaptation of landraces, phenotypic mechanisms driving that...
Several African Solanum species, including scarlet eggplant (Solanum aethiopicum L.) and the gboma eggplant (S. macrocarpon L.), are recently domesticated green leafy vegetables. The aim of the study was to determine if domestication process affected the amounts of selected nutrient and anti-nutrient compounds in plant lines bearing edible and inedible leaves in comparison to...
Bananas (Musa spp.), including dessert and cooking types, are of major importance in the tropics. Due to extremely high levels of sterility, the diversity of cultivated bananas is fixed over long periods of time to the existing genotypes. This pattern puts banana-based agrosystems at risk. Therefore, assessing the extent of wild and cultivated banana diversity, conserving it and...
Raspberry cane disease, caused by a complex of fungi, is amongst the most devastating problems for raspberry production. Using resistant or highly tolerant genotypes is a promising strategy. However, until now, cultivars with good field resistance for German fruit growers as well as the primary causal pathogens of cane disease present in the eastern part of Germany, Saxony state...
Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.) is one of the important legume crop grown in marginal soils of sub-Saharan Africa. Despite its importance in food security and income generation for small scale farmers, it remains as a neglected and underutilized crop and the productivity is very low in the field due to the lack of improved varieties and lack adequate farming...
In Arnica montana L. (Asteraceae) two subspecies are described, A. montana subsp. atlantica (AMA), present only on the Iberian Peninsula and A. montana subsp. montana (AMM) with a very wide distribution area. The morphological differences between the two subspecies are small and variable. Therefore, this concept is sometimes questioned. To establish the genetic background of the...
Molecular characterization of germplasm is important for sustainable exploitation of crops. DNA diversity was measured using inter-retrotransposon-amplified-polymorphism and inter-simple-sequence-repeat markers in 203 Ethiopian landraces and reference varieties of linseed (flax, Linum usitatissimum) and wild Linum species. Molecular diversity was high (PIC, 0.16; GD, 0.19...
Yam bean [Pachyrhizus DC.] is a legume genus of the subtribe Glycininae with three root crop species [P. erosus (L.) Urban, P. tuberosus (Lam.) Spreng., and P. ahipa (Wedd.) Parodi]. Two of the four cultivar groups found in P. tuberosus were studied: the roots of ‘Ashipa’ cultivars with low root dry matter (DM) content similar to P. erosus and P. ahipa are traditionally consumed...
The aim of this paper is to contribute directly to the systematic, long-term conservation of crop wild relatives (CWR) in the Fertile Crescent by setting conservation priorities to secure and improve CWR conservation in situ and ex situ as a means of underpinning global food security. We established the first priority list of CWR within the Fertile Crescent following several...
Panicle traits are the most intuitive and representative features of rice germplasm resources that have been utilized in the determination of its identity, genetic diversity, yield, and quality. Based on the approaches of ethnobotany, cultural anthropology and plant morphology, we analyzed the panicle traits of 95 traditional Kam fragrant glutinous rice landraces according to...