In Progress Activities of the Brassica Working Group of the European Cooperative Programme for Plant Genetic Resources (ECPGR)

During Phase VIII (2009-2013) of the ECPGR Programme, its BrassicaWorking Group (BWG) decided to focus the attention of all members on the priorityactions represented by the development of AEGIS (A European Genebank IntegratedSystem), and to characterize collections both of B. rapa, which could be defined as amulticrop species for its multiple utilization, and of wild Brassica species (n=9)distributed in the Mediterranean basin.The activities planned are being carried out by DISPA-University of Catania(UNICT), the Centre for Genetic Resources (CGN), Wageningen, the Institute ofSustainable Agriculture of Cordoba (CSIC-Spain), and N.I. Vavilov Research Instituteof Plant Industry (VIR), St Petersburg. The activity plan and first results obtained arepresented and discussed.