Results
Ranking of the VEG-ADAPT Starting Accession List (VESAL) based on yield and quality performances under multiple global-change related stress and establishment of the VEG-ADAPT Core Collection (VCC) (November 2020) - Selection of stress-resilient Mediterranean genotypes is one of the main research efforts in VEG-ADAPT. The VESAL (80 genotypes of tomato, pepper, and melon) was established by virtual selection of more than 10000 accessions, and it was tested in 2020 by ABIOPEP, IGZ, and UNITO under water. salt, and heat stress. This very significant effort allowed selection of the 24 genotypes of the VCC, to be further studied by the project in 2021.
Women's agricultural cooperatives in Morocco (July 2021)- Dr. Monica Vercelli from the University of Turin with the support of Dr. Naima Ait Aabda and Prof Rachid Bouharroud from INRA Moraoco visited some horticultural cooperatives and associations in the region of Souss-Massa (SW Morocco) to analyse strengths and weaknesses of the female horticultural farms and barriers to women's work. In particular, she investigated the participation of women and their role in horticultural sector, the division of labour between men and women and their access to resources. More at this link
Practical guidelines of integrated management of pests and diseases for climate change adaptation (December 2021) - While focusing on selection of mediterranean vegetable genotypes for resilience to abiotic strress, VEG-ADAPT also keeps control of potential problems due to pests and pathogens. The group of Dr. Rachid Bouharroud at INRAM in Agadir observed the behaviour of the VCC genotypes under pressure from Tuta absoluta, powdery mildew, Fusarium sp and othe pests/pathoigens. They reporrted on guidelines to optimize the IPM options for control of such pests/pathogens under Mediterranean conditions.
Analysis of regulations affecting germplasm protection (May 2022) - Genotype improvement and optimized cultivation is not the only key to success for Mediterranean vegetable culture under climate change, also obtaining the right genotytpe is essential, for both breeders and farmers. The Mediterranean countries do not share common regulations concenting germplasm protection and for this reason Dr. Rossana Pennazio from UNITO performed a case study analysis of regulations and international framing agreements that set the rukes for germplasm protection and exchance in EU and in in non-EU Mediterranean countries.
Organic amendments in the Med area: Biochar and Vermicompost (October 2022)- Greenhouse experiments performed within VEG-ADAPT WP4 by the team of Prof. Yuksel Tüzel at EGE University in Izmir in 2021 and 2022 demonstrate that soil amendment with 1 kg/m2 Biochar or Vermicompost increase Tomato growth, yield and fruit quality when irrigation is reduced up to 40%. Furthermore, a the soil microbial activity, as assessed bymeasurement of soil biochemical parameters , is improved in these water-limiting conditions
Genomic Prediction (October 2022) - This technique allows to significantly improve the performance of breeding programs by providing models describing the link between desired phenotypes and patterns of SNP markers in the genome. The INRAe team led by Mathilde Causse in Avignon, in collaboration with Gautier Semences, described in detail the quantitative relationships between SNP markers and growth, flowering time, and mineral content phenotypes in a tomato population grow in stress and control conditions and validated these results in a testing population. Results may now be applied in breeding of tomato and, after further validation, in other Mediterranean vegetable crops under climate change -induced stress.
Transcriptomics of tomato under heat and drought stress - Taking stock from. the characterization of stress tolerance in accessions form the VEG-ADAPT Core Collection (VCC), the groups at IGZ Berlin (Dr. Frederik Bornke) and at INIA Madrid (Dr. Joaquin Medina) have performed transcriptomic analysis., Twelve genotypes (six tolerant) were tested for responses to heat stress at IGZ, four (two tolerant) were tested for responses to drought stress at INIA. Among hundreds Differentially Expressed Genes (DEGs), candidate genes and markers of tolerance are being prioritized with functional genomuc tools.