Bio-morphological characterization of Mediterranean wild and cultivated Brassica species

The "COllection, CHaracterization and EVAluation of wild and cultivated BRASsicas (COCHEVA BRAS)" project aimed at characterizing Brassica landraces, commercial cultivars and wild relatives grown in Italy and Portugal, and to identify sources of resistance to downy mildew. The identification of eligible accessions, well characterized and diverse, to be proposed as most appropriate accessions (MAAs) for registration as AEGIS (A European Genebank Integrated System) accessions was the main aim of the project. At UNICT we characterized six accessions of B. incana, B. rupestris and B. villosa and 33 accessions of B. oleracea var. achephala, botrytis, capitata, costata, italica, gongyloes and sabauda. The bio-morphological characterization was performed according to the IBPGR and UPOV descriptors. Data were processed using SPSS by applying the hierarchical cluster analysis with the method of the complex linkage furthest neighbor. The cluster allowed us to classify the accessions in nine main groups with different characteristics. On this basis, nine accessions were proposed as MAAs for AEGIS. In groups with numerous accessions, those showing higher variability among them were chosen. In general Portuguese accessions were similar among them for several traits, as they belong all to B. oleracea var. acephala (var. costata), while Italian ones showed higher diversity for several descriptors among and within the crops, especially broccoli and cauliflower, and compared to the F1 hybrid used as a control. The great diversity detected among the accessions allowed us to consider most of them as MAAs to be listed in AEGIS.