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Multi-trait evolution of farmer varieties of bread wheat after cultivation in contrasting organic farming systems in Europe

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Abstract

Because of the lack of varieties for organic agriculture, associations of organic farmers in several European countries have begun cultivating landraces and historic varieties, effectively practicing in situ conservation of agricultural biodiversity. To promote agrobiodiversity conservation, a special list for “conservation varieties” was implemented in 2008 by the EU because for any exchange and marketing of seeds in the EU, a variety must be registered in an official catalog. Our study aimed at improving knowledge on the phenotypic diversity and evolution of such varieties when cultivated on organic farms in Europe, in order to better define their specific characteristics and the implications for the registration process. We assessed multi-trait phenotypic evolution in eight European landraces and historic varieties of bread wheat and in two pureline variety checks, each grown by eight organic farmers over 2 years and then evaluated in a common garden experiment at an organic research farm. Measurements on each farmer’s version of each variety included several standard evaluation criteria for assessing distinctness, uniformity and stability for variety registration. Significant phenotypic differentiation was found among farmers’ versions of each variety. Some varieties showed considerable variation among versions while others showed fewer phenotypic changes, even in comparison to the two checks. Although farmers’ variety would not satisfy uniformity or stability criteria as defined in the catalog evaluation requirements, each variety remained distinct when assessed using multivariate analysis. The amount of differentiation may be related to the initial genetic diversity within landraces and historic varieties.

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Abbreviations

EU:

European Union

FSO:

Farm seed opportunities

DUS:

Distinctness, uniformity and stability

VCU:

Value for cultivation and use

RSP:

Réseau Semences Paysannes

UPOV:

Union International pour la protection des obtentions végétales, International union for the protection of new varieties of plants

NIRS:

Near-infrared spectrometry

PCA:

Principal component analysis

PC:

Principal component

ANOVA:

Analysis of variance

PH:

Plant height

SL:

Spike length

LLSD:

Last-leaf-to-spike-distance

SpTot:

Total number of spikelets per spike

SW:

Spike weight

GW/spike:

Grain weight per spike

KN/spike:

Kernel number per spike

TKW:

Thousand kernel weight

AU:

Aubusson

HL:

Haute Loire

PI:

Piave

RB:

Rouge de Bordeaux

RD:

Redon

RN:

Renan

SO:

Solina

TO:

Touselles

ZH:

Zonnehoeve

ZW:

Zeeuwse Witte

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by a Specific Targeted Research Project of the European Commission 6th Framework Program Priority 8.1 SSP: Opportunities for farm seed conservation, breeding and production Proposal/Contract no.: SSP-CT-2006-044345. JD was supported by an INRA postdoctoral fellowship. We would especially like to thank the farmers who have participated in the project: Jean-François Berthellot, Vincent Chesneau, Giandomenico Cortiana, Tonino Del Santis, Henri Ferté, Piet Van Ijzendoorn, Florent Mercier, and Piet van Zanten. Thanks to the technical staff at the INRA station of le Rheu and le Moulon, to Jean-Martial Morel, the farm manager of the Lycée Agricole du Rheu, and to collaborators Veronique Chable, Edith Lammerts van Bueren, Aart Osman, and Mathieu Thomas.

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Author notes

  1. J. C. Dawson

    Present address: Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Cornell University, 422 Bradfield Hall, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. UMR de Génétique Végétale, Ferme du Moulon, 91190, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

    J. C. Dawson, N. Galic & I. Goldringer

  2. INRA SAD Paysage, 65 rue de St. Brieuc, 35042, Rennes, France

    E. Serpolay, N. Schermann & V. Chable

  3. Ecole d’Ingénieurs de Purpan, 75 voie du Toec, 31076, Toulouse, France

    S. Giuliano

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  1. J. C. Dawson
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Correspondence to J. C. Dawson.

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Dawson, J.C., Serpolay, E., Giuliano, S. et al. Multi-trait evolution of farmer varieties of bread wheat after cultivation in contrasting organic farming systems in Europe. Genetica 140, 1–17 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10709-012-9646-9

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