Sharka, caused by the Plum Pox Virus (PPV), is the most devastating disease affecting stone fruit trees in Europe. In order to respond to this critical situation, the FP7-funded SharCo project (2008-2012) devoted a significant part of its efforts on the development of first-generation PPV resistant plant materials, guidelines for new plantings, and molecular tools for the implementation of marker assisted selection (MAS) in apricot breeding programs. The first steps in establishing MAS were achieved in SharCo but presented some limitations that hampered the EU-wide implementation of a high throughput MAS approach. In this context, the current proposal, MARS (for Marker Assisted Resistance to Sharka), will boost the production of sharka resistant stone fruit cultivars by transferring the efficient and reliable procedures of MAS conceived in SharCo to SMEs. The SharCo molecular tools are continually being upgraded and these improvements will be transferred to SMEs as well; they will enable screening, at the seedling stage, thousands of apricot progenies in which several resistance genes where pyramided and/or sharka resistance was combined with locally adapted, high value varieties. It is expected that the translation of MAS to SMEs fill the need for high throughput selection of PPV resistant apricot cultivars adapted for cultivation all over Europe. Such an approach will contribute significantly to building efficient and durable resistance to sharka disease at the European level.
Coordinator
Institut National De La Recherche Agronomique-INRA (France)
Other participants
ALMA MATER STUDIORUM-UNIVERSITA DI BOLOGNA
- Dip. di Scienze Agrarie-DIPSA
- Resp. Scientifico: Dr. Stefano Tartarini
Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior De Investigaciones Cientificas (Spain)
Università Degli Studi Di Milano (Italy)
Institut Po Ovoshtarstvo-Plovdiv (Bulgaria)
Adn Id S.a.r.l. (France)
Juglans Regia Bg Ood (Bulgaria)
Cep Innovation S.a.r.l. (France)
Efe Viveros Del Sureste S.l. (Spain)
Mendelova Univerzita V Brne (Czech Republic)
Beta Insaat Turizm Ziraat Tarim Sulama Fidancilik Hayvancilik Ve Gidasanayii Ve Ticaret Limited Sirketi (Turkey)
A. Varlamos - G. Seiragakis Oe (Greece)
Universitatea De Stiinte Agronomice Si Medicina Veterinara - Bucuresti (Romania)
Mustafa Kemal University (Turkey)
Karayiannis Ioannis (Greece)
Hellinikos Georgikos Organismos – Dimitra - Hellenic Agricultural Organization - Demeter (Greece)
C.R.P.V. - Centro Ricerche Produzioni Vegetali Società Cooperativa A Responsabilità Limitata (Italy)
Start date 01/12/2013
End date 30/11/2015
Duration 24 months
Project Reference 613654
Project cost 1.591.507,40 EURO
Project Funding 999.250 EURO
Area FP7-COOPERATION-KBBE
Subprogramme Area KBBE 2013.1.4-07: Boosting the translation of FP projects' results into innovative applications
Contract type Collaborative project targeted to a special group (such as SMEs)