European Small Berries Genetic Resources, GENBERRY
Béatrice
Denoyes-Rothan1, Laurent Richard1, Bruno
Mezzetti2, Walther Faedi3, Maria Luigia
Maltoni3, Gianluca Baruzzi3, Edward Zurawicz4,
Margaret Korbin4, Audrius Sasnauskas5,
Philippe Chartier6, Monika Hoefer7, Julie
Graham8, Stuart Gordon8, Josef Sanchez
Sevilla9, Mihail Coman10, Paulina Mladin10.
1,
UREF – INRA, 71 Avenue Edouard Bourlaux, BP81, 33883, Villenave
d’Ornon Cedex, France
2,
SAPROV – UNIVPM, P.zza Roma 22, 60121, Ancona, Italy
3,
CRA-FRF, Via La Canapona, 1Bis - 47100,
Forlì, Italy
4,
INSAD, Pomologiczna 18, PO Box 105, 96-100, Skierniewice, Poland
5,
LIH, Kauno 30, LT-54333, Babtai, Lithuania
6,
Ciref Création Variétale Fraises Fruits Rouges, Maison Jeannette, 24140, Douville, France
7,
JKI-ZGO, Pillnitzer Platz 3a, D-01326 Dresden, Germany
8, SCRI, DD2
5DA, Dundee, Great Britain
9, IFAPA,
Tabladilla s/n, 41071, Sevilla, Spain
10, FRIP,
Marului street 402, PO Box 73, 1, Pitesti, Romania
Abstract

GENBERRY project
promotes conservation and characterization of genetic diversity of
small berries, particularly strawberry and raspberry. This project
is supported by the European Commission (Direction Générale de
l’Agriculture, DG-AGRI).
Small berry fruits
are important to their high content of human health benefits
meanwhile their production is vital for maintaining activities in
European rural areas. In the last few years, a major preoccupation
has been the breeding of new varieties well adapted to local
European regions. . Breeding for new objectives requires genetic
resources which possess the new desirable agronomic traits whether
as resistances to pest and diseases or with a high content of
health promoting compounds. It also important to reorganize and
maintain the EU genetic resources of berry crops, which are
adapted to different EU rural and highly cultivated conditions.
The objective of the
GENBERRY project is to ensure that agricultural biodiversity of
small berries, strawberry and red raspberry, is preserved and
characterized for use iin further breeding programs. This project
is based on the notion of networking, considering that maximum
added-value can only be reached by bringing together otherwise
rather scattered competences on techniques of cultivation,
phenotypic description, molecular biology, as well as evaluation
for health value compounds and disease resistances. Networking
will also allow for rationalization of the European collection and
the adoption of harmonized procedures and techniques. Ten partners
from eight European countries (France, Italy, Germany, Great
Britain, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Spain) are involved in
this cooperation.
Summarizing, this
project will help for
(1) the improvement of the ex situ
conservation toward the construction of core collections of
strawberry and red raspberry.
(2) the description of the European
collections using passport data and primary and secondary
descriptors.
(3) the characterization of the
European collections using molecular markers, health nutritional
compounds and diseases evaluation of a large subset of the
collections.
(4)
the establishment of an European small berry database,
firstly constructed for strawberry.
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