More efficient conservation and use of vegetable genetic resources in Europe: ECPGR achievements and perspectives

The European Cooperative Programme for Plant Genetic Resources (ECPGR) is a regional network funded by the European countries and coordinated by Bioversity International. The Vegetables Network with representatives of 42 countries, is one of the crop specific ECPGR networks (http://www.ecpgr.cgiar.org/ networks/vegetables.html). It consists of six Working Groups (WGs), i.e., on Allium, Brassica, Cucurbits, Leafy Vegetables, Solanaceae and Umbellifer Crops. Sharing responsibilities for the ex situ conservation of European vegetable crops genetic resources is the highest priority of the Vegetables Network. It is foreseen that the rationalization of the collections will lead to higher cost-efficiency, and improvement of plant genetic resources documentation and quality. These efforts will be continued within the framework of the AEGIS initiative (A European Genebank Integrated System) (http://www.aegis.cgiar.org/). Challenges for the Vegetables Network include the identification of the so-called Most Appropriate Accessions (MAA) for each crop for their inclusion in the decentrally managed European Collection, and the development of agreed crop specific technical standards for conservation. Achievements of the Network in recent years include the development of European Central Crop Databases (ECCDBs), quality standards for collection man-agement of seed-propagated crops and cryopreserved material, safety duplication improvement and definition of minimum characterization descriptors. Several EU-funded projects have initiated and accelerated the activities of the WGs. Apart from further improvements within the framework of AEGIS, the Network is planning a number of other initiatives, such as improving collaboration at the global level (Allium), developing molecular characterization protocols (lettuce), filling the gaps in the conservation of wild relatives (Brassica and Umbellifer Crops), and improving the Network’s communication with the scientific community and the public at large.