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Wide exploration of genetic diversity in Brassica species for sustainable crop production 

 

The identification of variability is a valuable tool for crop adaptation to environmental changes that challenge future agriculture.

BrasExplor aims to explore the existing biodiversity in two species: Brassica oleracea and Brassica rapa including both cultivated varieties and local populations, as well as wild parentals, widespread in the Mediterranean area. A relevant number of accessions of these two species will be collected according to environmental and climatic gradients, as well as to agrarian soil characteristics and their metagenome.

The project plans to genetically characterize the collection through resequencing activities, SNP generation, study of candidate genes. In parallel, the collection will be phenotyped for morpho-physiological and agronomic characteristics and for resilience to abiotic stresses, such as drought, high and low temperatures.

The BrasExplor project, funded by MUR, for the Italian part, has a duration of 3 years, and is coordinated by Anne-Marie Chèvre, of the "Institut de génétique, environnement et protection des plantes" INRAE, France.

BrasExplor associates 12 academic and private partners from 7 countries of the Mediterranean basin. The Italian partners are the Genomics and Bioinformatics Center of CREA and the Department of Biological, Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies (STEBICEF) of the University of Palermo.

Scientific coordinator of the project for the University of Palermo: Anna Geraci

International website of the project: https://www6.inrae.fr/brasexplor