Project on durum wheat to improve reference collections

June 6, 2019

Cereals and Pulses

Five examinations offices are conducting a project that aims to integrate molecular data into DUS testing in durum wheat.

The goal of the project is to combine genotypic and phenotypic data to optimise reference collection management by investigating the use of a defined high-density set of SNP (single nucleotide polymorphisms) markers for DUS testing.

The 3-year project, entitled DURDUS, had its first-year meeting in Milan, Italy, and was hosted by CREA-DC (the Italian examination office) on 5-6 June 2019.

The Euroseeds Secretariat also actively participated in this first annual meeting of the project, together with the partners of the project: AGES, GEVES, INIA, CREA-DC and NEBIH (respectively Austrian, French, Spanish, Italian, and Hungarian examination offices).

The Community Plant Variety Office (CPVO) is co-financing the project.

The CPVO, in line with its strategy, encourages by co-financing R&D projects conducted by Examination Offices with the aim to optimize the quality while reducing costs of DUS tests within the CPVO network of Examination Offices, to strengthen EU Plant Variety Rights (PVR) and to facilitate enforcement.