France
March 4, 2025
The kick-off meeting for the “International harmonization and validation of a SNP set for the management of lettuce reference collection” project took place on 17 and 18 February. The project was validated at the end of 2024 and will be supported and financed by the CPVO until the end of 2027.
This first meeting brought together the 4 examination offices authorised by the CPVO to carry out DUS studies on lettuce: BSA (Germany), INIA-CSIS (Spain), GEVES (France) and NAKT (Netherlands), as well as Euroseeds to represent the European seed industry.
With more than 3,200 applications for protection between 1995 and 2022, lettuce breeding is very dynamic in Europe; collections are growing and DUS studies require more and more resources (management and storage of collections, description of material, size of trials, etc.).
The main objective of this project is to develop a set of molecular markers (SNPs) to improve the efficiency of DUS tests on lettuce. These DUS studies are essential for the registration and protection of new varieties. However, the high phenotypic similarity between several varieties is making these tests increasingly complex and costly. The use of SNP markers would make it possible to select the reference varieties needed for field trials more efficiently, thereby reducing the associated costs.
It was agreed during these days to test these markers, firstly on a diversified pool of lettuce and on a reduced number of individuals to retain only the most robust and relevant SNPs. Then, in a second phase, the selected markers will be tested on a larger number of varieties and plants in order to validate them. As not all laboratories use the same methods and techniques, a great deal of harmonisation work also needs to be carried out. Repeatability and reproducibility criteria will also be evaluated as part of this project.
As the NAKT is the project leader for the CPVO, these 2 half-day working sessions took place in the Netherlands. The next, very practical stage is to draw up a list of varieties representative of the diversity of lettuces grown, for an initial series of tests this spring.
Topics
Species
