Periodic Reporting for period 3 - BreedingValue (Pre-breeding strategies for obtaining new resilient and added value berries)
Berichtszeitraum: 2024-01-01 bis 2025-06-30
Over four and a half years, BreedingValue has mapped the genetic biodiversity of strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries, applied new advanced genotyping technology and new phenotyping tools, developed tools for data access and visualisation, and established a sensory methodology to align breeding with consumer preferences. This work has been done on an unprecedented diversity of genetic material provided by 15 partner organisations and 6 external organisations.
Main results of BreedingValue are:
● Selection of an unprecedented diversity of berry genetic resources available in Europe and in-depth characterization through phenotyping, genotyping and metabolomic studies.
● Maintenance of promising berry germplasm on-farm, ex situ and by in vitro conservation including exchange of true-to-type accession between germplasm collections.
● Performance of Life-Cyle Assessment studies on strawberry and raspberry covering a total of 26 field trails and demonstrating the adaptability to more sustainable cultivation systems of representative cultivars and promising advanced selections.
● Characterization of the genetic diversity available in the European and North American variety collections, breeding, and pre-breeding materials (more than 1700 accessions for strawberry and about 100 for raspberry and blueberry).
● Registered 1 patent on seed germination, 5 CPVO registered cultivars, and 20 accessions on the EURISCO platform.
● Provision of extensive genotypic and phenotypic data, allowing for gene/marker identification, application, and validation.
● Availability of protocols for phenotyping (for example Scoring system for resistances).
● Contribution to the development of genomic tools for strawberry, raspberry and blueberry, specifically in the areas of genome-wide association studies (GWAS), marker-assisted selection (MAS), and genomic selection. These genomic tools have been transferred to European breeding companies through their involvement in the BreedingValue Open Calls.
● Design and application of a FluidigmⓇ array, as a useful and affordable platform for strawberry Molecular-Assisted Selection.
● Establishment of sequence based genotyping tools for raspberry and blueberry.
● Application and further development of innovative and rapid phenotyping tools aiming to build up prediction models for plant resilience, yield, and fruit quality. A combination of advanced and fast screening technologies were developed and employed. Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy and 3D imaging was applied to strawberry fruits, while hyperspectral imaging was used to phenotype raspberry and blueberry plants.
● Development of imaging-based root architecture trait mapping pipeline to identify heritable traits and potential new indicators for root resiliency in stress conditions in strawberry.
● Development of a software to visualize the plant architecture in 2D and 3D representations and to analyse the aerial architecture of strawberry plants.
● Characterization of strawberry, raspberry and blueberry fruit quality using metabolomics.
● Performance of postharvest studies in the three berry species providing valuable insights for selecting genotypes tailored to different market needs and identifying promising pre-breeding materials.
● Specification and communication of sensorial quality factors and consumer quality preferences for different berry species in different parts of Europe. Sensory attributes that most influence consumer acceptance and willingness to pay for fresh berries were identified.
● Production of harmonized sensory analysis tools and protocols and creation of sensory profiles. Development of multilingual (7 languages) lexicons for berry fruit sensorial analysis providing descriptions of fruit quality harmonized on European level.
● Development of harmonized visualization methodology to fruit sensory quality of European berry genetic resources.
● Knowledge transfer of sensory analysis methodology, protocols and tools to European breeding companies involved through the Open Calls allowing for a direct uptake of results into their breeding programs.
● Providing a large collection of open data dedicated to berry crops within the Germinate platform supporting data analyses and combination of data set-important for data integration and the development of rich data visualisation tools to ensure user-friendly display of the BreedingValue data: https://breedingvalue.eu/results/the-germinate-berry-database(öffnet in neuem Fenster).
All BreedingValue partners actively disseminated the project results to a wider stakeholder group, including the scientific/researcher community, berry breeders and pre-breeders, nurseries, farmers and growers as well as consumers and the general public. Dissemination measures included: 30 open access publications (https://breedingvalue.eu/publications)(öffnet in neuem Fenster); others in submission/preparation, 230 dissemination events at nat./internat. conferences, workshops and symposia, production of video material/tutorials. Several workshops and outreach events were organized. Field demonstration activities and workshop were implemented targeting berry growers and breeders. Training of young students and researchers on all levels of technologies and knowledge developed by BreedingValue was an integral part of the project.
● Selection of an unprecedented diversity of berry genetic resources available in Europe and in-depth characterization through phenotyping, genotyping and metabolomic studies.
● Maintenance of promising berry germplasm on-farm, ex situ and by in vitro conservation including exchange of true-to-type accession between germplasm collections.
● Performance of Life-Cyle Assessment studies on strawberry and raspberry covering a total of 26 field trails and demonstrating the adaptability to more sustainable cultivation systems of representative cultivars and promising advanced selections.
● Characterization of the genetic diversity available in the European and North American variety collections, breeding, and pre-breeding materials (more than 1700 accessions for strawberry and about 100 for raspberry and blueberry).
● Registered 1 patent on seed germination, 5 CPVO registered cultivars, and 20 accessions on the EURISCO platform.
● Provision of extensive genotypic and phenotypic data, allowing for gene/marker identification, application, and validation.
● Availability of protocols for phenotyping (for example Scoring system for resistances).
● Contribution to the development of genomic tools for strawberry, raspberry and blueberry, specifically in the areas of genome-wide association studies (GWAS), marker-assisted selection (MAS), and genomic selection. These genomic tools have been transferred to European breeding companies through their involvement in the BreedingValue Open Calls.
● Design and application of a FluidigmⓇ array, as a useful and affordable platform for strawberry Molecular-Assisted Selection.
● Establishment of sequence based genotyping tools for raspberry and blueberry.
● Application and further development of innovative and rapid phenotyping tools aiming to build up prediction models for plant resilience, yield, and fruit quality. A combination of advanced and fast screening technologies were developed and employed. Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy and 3D imaging was applied to strawberry fruits, while hyperspectral imaging was used to phenotype raspberry and blueberry plants.
● Development of imaging-based root architecture trait mapping pipeline to identify heritable traits and potential new indicators for root resiliency in stress conditions in strawberry.
● Development of a software to visualize the plant architecture in 2D and 3D representations and to analyse the aerial architecture of strawberry plants.
● Characterization of strawberry, raspberry and blueberry fruit quality using metabolomics.
● Performance of postharvest studies in the three berry species providing valuable insights for selecting genotypes tailored to different market needs and identifying promising pre-breeding materials.
● Specification and communication of sensorial quality factors and consumer quality preferences for different berry species in different parts of Europe. Sensory attributes that most influence consumer acceptance and willingness to pay for fresh berries were identified.
● Production of harmonized sensory analysis tools and protocols and creation of sensory profiles. Development of multilingual (7 languages) lexicons for berry fruit sensorial analysis providing descriptions of fruit quality harmonized on European level.
● Development of harmonized visualization methodology to fruit sensory quality of European berry genetic resources.
● Knowledge transfer of sensory analysis methodology, protocols and tools to European breeding companies involved through the Open Calls allowing for a direct uptake of results into their breeding programs.
● Providing a large collection of open data dedicated to berry crops within the Germinate platform supporting data analyses and combination of data set-important for data integration and the development of rich data visualisation tools to ensure user-friendly display of the BreedingValue data: https://breedingvalue.eu/results/the-germinate-berry-database(öffnet in neuem Fenster).
All BreedingValue partners actively disseminated the project results to a wider stakeholder group, including the scientific/researcher community, berry breeders and pre-breeders, nurseries, farmers and growers as well as consumers and the general public. Dissemination measures included: 30 open access publications (https://breedingvalue.eu/publications)(öffnet in neuem Fenster); others in submission/preparation, 230 dissemination events at nat./internat. conferences, workshops and symposia, production of video material/tutorials. Several workshops and outreach events were organized. Field demonstration activities and workshop were implemented targeting berry growers and breeders. Training of young students and researchers on all levels of technologies and knowledge developed by BreedingValue was an integral part of the project.
The work performed within the BreedingValue project provided partners running breeding programs with valuable information (e.g. advanced phenotypic description, metabolomics, marker detection) about the adaptation to climate change and consumer acceptance of their breeding material (germplasm, breeding populations and selections) and cultivars. Importantly, the LCA studies demonstrate the adaptability to more sustainable cultivation systems of some cultivars and advanced selections, while the allelic study provides insights about the diversity of the pre-breeding material in the breeding programs involved. The metabolomics performed (analyses of fruit primary, secondary and volatile compounds) and sensorial tools developed (Including lexicon, panel and consumer test) provided evidence-based measurement of fruit nutritional quality and consumer acceptance.
BreedingValue promoted the delivery of new varieties and allowed for a better characterization of genetic material of project partners that have already started a Plant Variety Right (PVR) application or is foreseen for a future PVR application. It also allowed for the identification of advanced selections as pre-breeding material for future breeding programs and generated valuable knowledge on unprecedented variety of genetic material (advanced phenotypic description, metabolomics, marker detection, sensorial analysis, LCA). 13 (out of 20) partner organisations and 10 third party organisations involved in BreedingValue directly implement results in their ongoing breeding programs. New prebreeding materials registered on the EURISCO platform.
The activities carried out within the BreedingValue project enabled the development of an innovative breeding strategy, based on an integrated analysis of genetic diversity — including genomic, metabolomic, and sensory aspects — with the goal of identifying novel genetic resources for traits related to plant resilience and fruit quality. These resources were evaluated for their potential use in pre-breeding as well as for possible commercial development, thanks to the implementation of new genotyping and phenotyping tools developed within the project.
BreedingValue promoted the delivery of new varieties and allowed for a better characterization of genetic material of project partners that have already started a Plant Variety Right (PVR) application or is foreseen for a future PVR application. It also allowed for the identification of advanced selections as pre-breeding material for future breeding programs and generated valuable knowledge on unprecedented variety of genetic material (advanced phenotypic description, metabolomics, marker detection, sensorial analysis, LCA). 13 (out of 20) partner organisations and 10 third party organisations involved in BreedingValue directly implement results in their ongoing breeding programs. New prebreeding materials registered on the EURISCO platform.
The activities carried out within the BreedingValue project enabled the development of an innovative breeding strategy, based on an integrated analysis of genetic diversity — including genomic, metabolomic, and sensory aspects — with the goal of identifying novel genetic resources for traits related to plant resilience and fruit quality. These resources were evaluated for their potential use in pre-breeding as well as for possible commercial development, thanks to the implementation of new genotyping and phenotyping tools developed within the project.