September 22, 2016

Among Experts: Impressions from the XVI. EUCARPIA Capsicum and Eggplant Working Group Meeting

G2P-SOL Team Members Joined Expert Discourse in Hungary
 
This year, the selected location to host the event on September 12-14, 2016 was Kecskemèt, a significant horticultural area of the Bács-Kiskun region in Hungary. Taking place every three years at different locations, the EUCARPIA Capsicum and Eggplant Working Group Meeting is one of the most relevant events regarding pepper and eggplant worldwide.
Topics like genetic resources, molecular genetics and biotechnology, breeding strategies, growing and seed production, physiology and nutritional value were analysed in various talks and presentations by internationally acknowledged experts in the field.
The XVI EUCARPIA Capsicum and Eggplant Working Group Meeting was organized in commemoration of Dr Alain Palloix (INRA). The conference started with an opening speech from Prof. Sergio Lanteri (UNITO) and a commemorative lecture on Alain Palloix by Dr Veronique Lefebvre (INRA). Many other G2P-SOL partners contributed to 3 of the further 5 sessions as follows:

Session 1, Breeding Strategies: included the contribution of Dr Jaime Prohens (UPV) with a presentation entitled: “Utilization of crop wild relatives in eggplant pre-breeding for adaptation to climate change”.

Session 3, Genetic Resources: was introduced by Dr Marie-Christine Daunay (INRA) with her presentation on “Eggplant resistance to bacterial wilt and to Fusarium wilt: Is there a link?”.

Session 5, Molecular Genetics and Biotechnologies: was introduced by Prof. Ezio Portis (UNITO) with his presentation on “Molecular Genetics and Biotechnologies: A high quality eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) genome sequence”.

Additionally, other members from CREA, UNITO, UPV and INRA contributed to the conference with talks and posters.

The programme of the event can be found here: http://eucarpia2016.hu/program.
 
The G2P-SOL project (Title: Linking genetic resources, genomes and phenotypes of Solanaceous crops) has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 677379.