22nd December 2021

Linking genetic resources, genomes and phenotypes of solanaceous crops: EU project G2P-SOL releases animated clip

The major solanaceous food crops potato, tomato, pepper and eggplant have been the main focus of the Horizon 2020 research project G2P-SOL. The project team has made all the genetic material presently stored in gene banks worldwide available to the general public, scientists and breeders through a dedicated database (https://unity.phenome-networks.com). This will ensure the sustainability and biodiversity of agriculture in the face of a changing environment and the appearance of new pests.

The project has just released an entertaining animated video clip showcasing the project’s focus and explaining in easily accessible terms how G2P-SOL changes the game of ensuring genetic diversity of the four staple crops way into the future. The short animation tells the story of some desperate vegetables trying to secure their breeds and finding just the solution to do so.

With the project soon ending, the G2P-SOL partners can reflect on six very productive years. During that time, over 50,000 accessions of the four major Solanaceous crops were catalogued by collecting in a single database, passport, phenotypic and image data available at worldwide gene banks hosting Solanaceae collections. Over 40,000 of these accessions were genotyped and the data was used to construct core collections representing the genetic and phenotypic variation of the four species. The core collections were subjected to high density genotyping/ resequencing and phenotypic characterisation, including agronomic/quality traits, metabolomics and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses, at multiple locations. G2P-SOL has also generated/ characterised novel pre-breeding populations, carrying traits from wild gene pools of each crop.