May 27, 2024

From 22 to 25 April, the annual meeting of the UPOV Technical Working Party for Vegetables (TWV) brought together some sixty participants representing their respective countries or organisations. Held for the first time under the chairmanship of our Japanese counterpart, Mr Yoshiyuki OHNO, this working week was opened by the new Deputy Secretary-General of UPOV, Ms Yolanda HUERTAS, who stressed the importance of the work carried out by this group, particularly in terms of harmonising DUS studies.

In addition to updates and discussions on cross-cutting UPOV documents (covering all species and not just vegetable species), there were major focuses on:

• the procedures for discussing and transcribing disease resistance characteristics in technical guides,
• the conditions and rules for determining male sterility characteristics in vegetable Brassicacae, and more specifically, in the first instance, those relating to cauliflower,
• the possible introduction of a new type of characteristic: PQN (pseudo-quantitative characteristics) in addition to those already existing (qualitative characteristics QL, quantitative characteristics QN and pseudo-qualitative characteristics PQ).

France, through GEVES, led several of the technical sessions during the week (garlic, lettuce) and was heavily involved in the discussions linked to the revisions of the technical guides for aubergine, asparagus, cucumber/gherkin, maize (the latter including sweet and vegetable maize) and parsley.

She also co-hosted and presented cross-cutting discussions on the results of cooperative work between FR, NL, JP, CPVO and applicant representatives on evaluating distinctness through the use of pathogen resistance characteristics. This work will be continued in 2025. In addition, the results of cooperation between the FR- NL- IT offices, as part of the H2020 INVITE project, on the alternative use of molecular marking tools to resistance biotests (illustrated by 3 pairs of tomato pests) were shared with the international community. It was also an opportunity to propose to UPOV, under the leadership of GEVES, a framework, description and validation document for any new biomolecular test protocol, prior to its inclusion in a UPOV guideline.

This TWV was also the last for Marian VAN LEEUWEN, our colleague from the Netherlands, after more than 25 years of participation, including several as chairman of the group.

In the absence of any offers to host, the 2025 TWV should also be held in videoconference mode at the beginning of May 2025.

Website: http://www.geves.fr

Published: May 27, 2024