Phenotypic diversity and evolution of farmer varieties of bread wheat on organic farms in Europe

Dawson, Julie; Serpolay, Estelle; Giuliano, Simon; Schermann, Nicolas; Galic, Nathalie; Berthellot, Jean-François; Chesneau, V.; Ferté, H.; Mercier, Florent; Osman, A. M.; Pino, S.; Goldringer, Isabelle

doi:10.1007/s10722-012-9822-x

Cited by 15 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…In this paper, we report on the experiments with spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.), an allogamous vegetable species. In addition, a similar trial on bread wheat, an autogamous crop species, is reported [10]. Results to be published later on maize, an allogamous crop species, will enable us to have more insights on the short-term evolution of farmer varieties, and their potential adaptation to farmers' conditions.…”

Section: Legislation Issuesmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Given the growing need for historical and landrace (farmer) varieties bred on-farm [10], the EU needed more scientific information on how such varieties evolve and the associated legislative issues (among others DUS criteria), since seed legislation was developed for homogeneous varieties in a conventional agriculture framework [1]. In the literature, results can be found on the evolution of farmer varieties based on genetic markers, for instance [11][12][13], but there are few results based on phenotypic traits that are of direct relevance to the farmers [12,14].…”

Section: Legislation Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Phenotypic Changes in Different Spinach Varieties Grown and Selected under Organic Conditions

Serpolay¹,

Schermann²,

Dawson³

et al. 2011

Sustainability

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Organic and low-input agriculture needs flexible varieties that can buffer environmental stress and adapt to the needs of farmers. We implemented an experiment to investigate the evolutionary capacities of a sample of spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) population varieties for a number of phenotypic traits. Three farmers cultivated, selected and multiplied one or several populations over two years on their farms. The third year, the versions of the varieties cultivated and selected by the different farmers were compared to the original seed lots they had been given. After two cycles of cultivation and on-farm mass selection, all the observed varieties showed significant phenotypic changes (differences between the original version and the version cultivated by farmers) for morphological and phenological traits. When the divergence among versions within varieties was studied, the results show that the varieties conserved their identity, except for one variety, which evolved in such a way that it may now be considered two different varieties. The heterogeneity of the population varieties was assessed in comparison with a commercial F1 hybrid used as control, and we found no specific differences in phenotypic OPEN ACCESS Sustainability 2011, 3 1617 diversity between the hybrid and population varieties. The phenotypic changes shown by the population varieties in response to on-farm cultivation and selection could be useful for the development of specific adaptation. These results call into question the current European seed legislation and the requirements of phenotypic stability for conservation varieties.

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Section: Legislation Issuesmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Legislation Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phenotypic Changes in Different Spinach Varieties Grown and Selected under Organic Conditions

Serpolay¹,

Schermann²,

Dawson³

et al. 2011

Sustainability

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“…Each farmer chose a variety they currently grow on their farm under organic conditions. More detailed descriptions of the varieties are provided in Dawson et al (2012). A short description is provided below.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The main purpose of this article is to compare the different versions of the same variety and discuss these changes with respect to the criteria of distinctness, uniformity and stability for farmer varieties in relation to the requirements for the new EU directive on conservation varieties. The varieties studied here were also compared on-farm before temporal evolution in Serpolay et al (2011in Dawson et al (2012. There were significant genotype by environment interactions observed in the Serpolay et al (2011) study, and it was of interest to test whether these contrasting environmental conditions during the 2 years of multiplication had an impact on the phenotypes of the varieties for traits important to variety registration.…”

Section: Anova Tests Of Main Effects and Interactionsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…While plant breeders have access to genetic resources and may use genetic diversity in the breeding process, very little genetic diversity remains in released varieties once they are sold to farmers. This strategy may work for conventional systems where environmental stress is buffered with inputs, but organic and low-input farming is likely to benefit from having more genetically diverse varieties (Dawson et al 2012). Yield stability under difficult environmental conditions is a major reason that farmers continue to use diverse varieties such as landraces (Ceccarelli 1994), and organic farmers in Europe have been increasingly active in seed exchanges and the conservation of landraces and historic varieties (Chable and Berthellot 2006;Newton et al 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Dawson¹,

Serpolay²,

Giuliano³

et al. 2012

Genetica

Self Cite

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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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Seeds for Organic Agriculture: Development of Participatory Plant Breeding and Farmers’ Networks in France

Chable¹,

Dawson

Bocci

et al. 2014

Organic Farming, Prototype for Sustainable Agricultures

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Phenotypic diversity and evolution of farmer varieties of bread wheat on organic farms in Europe

Cited by 15 publications

References 23 publications

Phenotypic Changes in Different Spinach Varieties Grown and Selected under Organic Conditions

Phenotypic Changes in Different Spinach Varieties Grown and Selected under Organic Conditions

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

Seeds for Organic Agriculture: Development of Participatory Plant Breeding and Farmers’ Networks in France

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