Brassica oleracea complex species in Sicily: diversity, uses and conservation strategies

The Brassica oleracea complex species represents the primary gene pool of Brassica genus C genome (n=9) which is involved in the domestication processes of several vegetable crops. In the Mediterranean area, Italy owns a large diversity of B. oleracea landraces (LRs), grown in home gardens and in peri-urban vegetable farms where, broccoli, cauliflower, kale and kohlrabi along with their crop wild relatives (CWR) show different potentially useful traits for the innovation of relevant production chains. To this purpose LRs have been bio-morphologically, biochemically and genetically characterized together with some Brassica wild relatives and used in breeding programs. The large diversity observed among the analyzed accessions has confirmed the importance of the Sicilian gene pool of B. oleracea complex species endorsing the need to promote their protection. The activities carried out at Di3A of Catania University led to identify several interesting sites of B. oleracea complex species for their in situ and on farm conservation along with the ex situ conservation actions run for more than two decades.