Developing new cultivars of broccoli, snap bean, and tomato for resilient, efficient, and sustainable organic vegetable production: preliminary results of the H2020 BRESOV project

The BRESOV project, funded under the Horizon 2020 program (SFS-07-2017, GA 774244), started in 2018. It aims to investigate the potential exploitation of crop wild relatives (CWRs) and landraces for breeding of broccoli, snap bean, and tomato, and improve vegetable production under organic conditions by resilient elite genotypes tolerant/resistant to abiotic stresses and plant diseases (www.bresov.eu). The main objective of the consortium (composed of 22 partners, representing ten European countries), two associated EU countries (Switzerland and Tunisia) and two non-EU countries (China and South Korea) is to support organic vegetable breeding and farming and render it more competitive and attractive for European and extra-European growers. During the ongoing activities, 837 accessions of Brassica oleracea (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, kale, kohlrabi, and related wild relatives), 496 of Solanum lycopersicum and wild tomato relatives, and 1443 of Phaseolus vulgaris were genotyped and phenotyped to identify traits of interest for organic vegetable farming, such as for bio-morphological characteristics of plants and for resistance to biotic (11 key crop-specific pathogens) and abiotic stresses (water deficit, water logging, salinity, temperature). Particular attention was paid to detect the content of antioxidant compounds of the products, such as glucosinolates, polyphenols, carotenoids, vitamins, antioxidant capacity, in addition to protein content and the main organoleptic traits (sweetness, acidity, color, firmness), as well as comprehensive profiling of metabolites to predict quality of the production of three model crops considered. The results acquired to date enable the consortium to support the growing demand for resilient organic cultivars of broccoli, snap bean, and tomato. Ultimately, the project will address the requests of farmers’ need for high quality organic vegetable seeds that will provide plants characterized by valuable agronomic and technological traits.