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Abstract
In Romania, work on identification, conservation and evaluation of fruit genetic resources activities was initiated in 1970 in order to limit the loss of biodiversity. There are rich sources of germplasm located in two research centres: RIFG Pitesti with 642 accessions and UCv-SCDP Vâlcea with 361 accessions, representing wild species, local populations, named cultivars, breeder's selections and rootstocks. Observations were made according to the IBPGR Prunus descriptors updated by the ECP/GR Prunus Working Group. The following genetic resources from the Piteşti and Vâlcea collections were used in a breeding programme in the development of several plum cultivars: 'Grase de Becs', 'Carpatin', 'Ialomiža', 'Kirke', 'Wilhelmina Späth' (for resistance / tolerance to Plum pox virus); 'Vinete romāneşti', 'Tuleu timpuriu', 'Anna Späth' (for late blooming), 'Tuleu gras', 'Vâlcean' (for fruit quality), 'Stanley', 'Pescăruş', 'Centenar' (for productivity), and 'Diana' (for self-fertility). The plum rootstock breeding programme used the following genotypes as sources of genes: 'Rosior văratec', 'Brompton', 'Renclod Verde', 'Pixy', 'Saint Julien A', 'Albe mici', 'Scolduş', 'Porumbar', etc. Breeding using the germplasm in these collections resulted in the release of 40 cultivars and 11 generative and vegetative rootstocks.

To improve the utilization of European Phaseolus germplasm collections is a current challenge. It is well known that a very low percentage of germplasm collection is used in breeding programs and this percentage is lowest if we are looking at accessions with the highest genetic variability as landraces are. To make easy the use of PGR collections it is essential to offer to the users accessions well documented. It means that the general characterization and the evaluation specially interesting for the crop are made and the resulting data are correct presented in a data base easy to handle. So, the aims of this handbook must be to serve as a good orientation to any research that need to manage a Phaseolus collection, to give them the descriptors more appropriated in each case and to offer the best methodology to obtain the more representative data for each descriptor. All these objectives are developed of course under the light of the current state of art and ratified by us as the European specialists in Phaseolus. ; The Concerted Action is carried out with financial support from the Commission of the European Communities, FAIR programme, FAIR5-PL97-3463,"Improvement of sustainable Phaseolus production in Europe for human comsumption - PHASELIEU". ; Peer reviewed

Maize (Zea mays L.) is a tropical crop with low tolerance to cold conditions and has to be planted late in temperate areas due to low temperatures. The objective of this research was to identify new cold tolerant populations among the European germplasm useful for improving adaptation to early sowing. For that, the European Union Maize Landraces Core Collection (EUMLCC) was evaluated under cold conditions. After a preliminary screening of 95 populations the 11 populations with best germination and early growth under cold conditions were multiplied and evaluated in a cold chamber and in early field sowings at two locations during 2 years. The cold tolerant populations from the EUMLCC were not significantly different from the cold tolerant checks in the cold chamber. In early field sowing, some EUMLCC populations had similar emergence than the commercial checks and the coldest tolerant hybrids, and higher vigor than all the hybrids and the yield of some of the populations surpassed the yield of the cold tolerant hybrids. Altogether, Aranga1 emerged as the most promising candidate as base population for improving adaptation to early sowing. ; Research was supported by the Spanish National Plan for Research and Development (AGF2004-06776, AGL2007-64218), the Autonomous Government of Galicia (PGIDIT04RAG403006PR) and the Excma. Diputacion Provincial de Pontevedra. ; Peer reviewed

The Thai cassava production and processing industry heavily depends on the export market, mainly the European Economic Community (EEC). With the anticipated removal of the preferential tariff treatment of Thai tapioca to the EEC, a lower level of importation and/or lower prices for Thai cassava products are imminent. Thai government policy is to reduce the cassava-planted area and help farmers increase productivity. In response to this situation, higher yielding cultivars with higher starch content in the roots are required. A promising approach to achieving this goal is to create broad genetic variability by introducing cassava germplasm from abroad, and recombining desirable characters into new high-yielding varieties. In the near future, 600 accessions, comprising the CIAT cassava core collection, will be introduced to Thailand in the form of in vitro culture. This will make available to Asian cassava breeders a good representation of the total genetic diversity found in cassava. These accessions will be subcultured to increase the number of plants per accession. Several plants will be evaluated in the field and field data collected. At least 2 ha will be required for this purpose. In order to provide security of planting material during the establishment period, five test tubes of each clone will be routinely maintained under minimal growth conditions in the laboratory, using Roca`s method. After about 5 years these accessions will be available to other national breeding programs and exchanged by means of in vitro plantlets

Celosia argentea is an annual leafy vegetable popularly known for its dietary and medicinal values. Hence, it is important to preserve and further improve this vegetable to enhance its numerous benefits. This study therefore investigated the genetic variability among different genotypes of C. argentea using ISSR primers. A total of 15 C. argentea genotypes were sourced from National Centre for Genetic Resources and Biotechnology (NACGRAB) in Ibadan, Nigeria and 10 genotypes sourced from different markets. The open field experiment was set up in a completely randomized design. Seeds of each cultivar were grown, and seedlings transplanted. Fresh young apical leaves were harvested. DNA was extracted from young frozen apical leaves. Six ISSR primers were optimized and used in PCR with a touch-down procedure in a thermocycler. Agarose gel electrophoresis was performed, and bands were visualized. Molecular data was analyzed for total gene diversity, while morphological data was analyzed using ANOVA. The genotypes of NGB recorded the highest mean performance for plant height, leaf biomass and seed weight, while the A00 genotypes were observed to have higher values of leaf length, leaf area and root biomass. The principal component analysis showed that the first component accounted for 42% of the total variation. The correlation matrix for growth, agronomic and yield characters show highly significant positive relationship among the growth characters at P 0.05. Primer UBC-866(CTC)6 was highly polymorphic. Genotype A005 performed best for growth characters while NGB00182 performed best for yield characters. Genetic assessment and improvements in C. argenta germplasm play key role in future studies and improvements of vegetable crop.
Keywords: Celosia argentea, germplasm, genomic DNA, ISSR primers.

7 Pág. ; Over the last century, several reproductive biotechnologies beyond the artificial incubation of eggs were developed to improve poultry breeding stocks and conserve their genetic diversity. These include artificial insemination (AI), semen storage, diploid primordial germ cell (PGC) methodologies, and gonad tissue storage and transplantation. Currently, AI is widely used for selection purposes in the poultry industry, in the breeding of turkeys and guinea fowl, and to solve fertility problems in duck interspecies crosses for the production of mule ducklings. The decline in some wild game species has also raised interest in reproductive technologies as a means of increasing the production of fertile eggs, and ultimately the number of birds that can be raised. AI requires viable sperm to be preserved in vitro for either short (fresh) or longer periods (chilling or freezing). Since spermatozoa are the most easily accessed sex cells, they are the cell type most commonly preserved by genetic resource banks. However, the cryopreservation of sperm only preserves half of the genome, and it cannot preserve the W chromosome. For avian species, the problem of preserving oocytes and zygotes may be solved via the cryopreservation and transplantation of PGCs and gonad tissue. The present review describes all these procedures and discusses how combining these different technologies allows poultry populations to be conserved and even rapidly reconstituted. ; This work received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement No. 677353 IMAGE. Part of this work was supported by Zoitechlab S.L. (Arquimea group) -INIA contract CON18-141 ; Peer reviewed

The OPTIMISC project received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013) under grant agreement No. 289159. In addition, the study was partly supported by a grant from the Ministry of Science, Research and the Arts of Baden-Württemberg (funding code: 7533-10-5-70) as part of the BBW ForWerts Graduate Programme. We are grateful to Nicole Gaudet for editing the manuscript. ; Peer reviewed ; Publisher PDF

The OPTIMISC project received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement No. 289159. ; Peer reviewed ; Publisher PDF

15 p., 6 fig., 4 tab. Copyright © 2014 Loscos, Igartua, Contreras-Moreira, Gracia and Casas. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. ; Flowering time in plants is a tightly regulated process. In barley (Hordeum vulgare L.), HvFT1, ortholog of FLOWERING LOCUS T, is the main integrator of the photoperiod and vernalization signals leading to the transition from vegetative to reproductive state of the plant. This gene presents sequence polymorphisms affecting flowering time in the first intron and in the promoter. Recently, copy number variation (CNV) has been described for this gene. An allele with more than one copy was linked to higher gene expression, earlier flowering, and an overriding effect of the vernalization mechanism. This study aims at (1) surveying the distribution of HvFT1 polymorphisms across barley germplasm and (2) assessing gene expression and phenotypic effects of HvFT1 alleles. We analyzed HvFT1 CNV in 109 winter, spring, and facultative barley lines. There was more than one copy of the gene (2–5) only in spring or facultative barleys without a functional vernalization VrnH2 allele. CNV was investigated in several regions inside and around HvFT1. Two models of the gene were found: one with the same number of promoters and transcribed regions, and another with one promoter and variable number of transcribed regions. This last model was found in Nordic barleys only. Analysis of HvFT1 expression showed that association between known polymorphisms at the HvFT1 locus and the expression of the gene was highly dependent on the genetic background. Under long day conditions the earliest flowering lines carried a sensitive PpdH1 allele. Among spring cultivars with different number of copies, no clear relation was found between CNV, gene expression and flowering time. This was confirmed in a set of doubled haploid lines of a population segregating for HvFT1 CNV. Earlier flowering in the presence of several copies of HvFT1 was only seen in cultivar Tammi, which carries one promoter, suggesting a relation of gene structure with its regulation. HvCEN also affected to a large extent flowering time. ; This work was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MICINN), within the project AGL2010-21929; multiplication of plant materials was funded by project RFP-00015-00-00; all authors were supported by Aragon government project A06. ; Peer reviewed