Unipi Team Leader: prof. Tommaso Giordani, Dipartimento di Scienze agrarie, alimentari e agro-ambientali
Nowadays fig trees are grown for fresh and dried fruits in many countries of Mediterranean region. The fig tree is one of the four fruit tree species more resistant to water and salt stress making this species extremely interesting as a sustainable crop in new farming systems in a context of climate change. The fig tree has undergone a low level of genetic improvement and is currently threatened by genetic erosion.
The fig tree (Ficus carica L.) has a great potential for expansion thanks to valuable nutritional and nutraceutical characteristics, combined with the ability to adapt to dry, calcareous and saline environments, making this species a model plant to study plant adaptation to rain-fed conditions and extremely interesting for sustainable commercial production in Mediterranean region, also in relation to the climate change.
This project aims at: a) evaluating genetic variability of fig genotypes on available Spanish, Tunisian Turkish fig collections using a genotyping by sequencing approach; b) phenotyping fig genotypes to identify plants most suitable to be cultivated in drought/salt conditions; c) identifying genomic loci linked to drought/salt adaptation performing Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS) d) disseminating project’s products and results to stakeholders.
The project meets PRIMA topic 2.2.2 RIA “Use and management of biodiversity as a major lever of sustainability in farming systems” in the Thematic area “Farming Systems”. From one hand it aims to evaluate performances and genetic variability of fig varieties/breeds integrating new knowledge and technologies in assessing biodiversity with knowledge coming from local farmers and stakeholders. On the other hand it aims to select genotypes better adapted to drought/salt condition that can efficiently cope with the challenges ahead due to climate change. These genotypes will be introduced within traditional agricultural systems located in marginal areas to obtain mixing cropping systems as agroforestry. This will contribute to implement biodiversity-based agriculture producing beneficial effects in terms of soil and water conservation, poor soil valorisation and, consequently, better ecosystem services.
Molecular markers linked to drought/salt condition adaptation developed through (GWAS) will contribute to the genetic improvement of this species developing new varieties better adapted to a changing climate.
Coordinator: University of Pisa
Partner:
- Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), Spain
- Centro de Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas de Extremadura (CICYTEX), Spain
- Université de Tunis El Manar (UTM), Tunisia
- Çukorova University (CU), Turkey
Project funding: ca. 1.000.000 €
Unipi quota: ca. 378.000 €