Food Legumes are recognized as important crops to cope with climate changes and to promote food security and nutritional quality as we move toward a plant-based diet transition. Chickpea is an important food legume linked to the European food tradition, where a large number of landraces are still cultivated and maintained by smallholder farmers. However, despite the increase in consumers demand chickpea cultivation in Europe, is hindered by a lack of breeding efforts to create varieties adapted to European and Mediterranean agro- environments. In this thesis, we investigated the domesticated chickpea's natural variation by developing a large collection specifically designed to target the European and Mediterranean environment. The collection was characterized at genotypic level to infer the genetic diversity and population structure of domesticated chickpea germplasm. By coupling these data with environmental variables, available from georeferenced landraces, we applied landscape genomic approaches to detect genotype-environment associations. Moreover, combining the genomic data with the phenotypic characterization from field trials conducted in Central Italy, we performed genome-wide association GWA analysis identifying candidate genomic regions associated with agronomic traits. The results show an integrated genomic, climatic, and phenotypic characterization of chickpea diversity, providing high-quality molecular tools to support European chickpea breeding programs.
Le leguminose alimentari sono riconosciute come importanti colture per far fronte ai cambiamenti climatici, garantendo la sicurezza alimentare e qualità nutrizionale attraverso una transizione alimentare a base vegetale. Il cece (Cicer arietinum L.) è un’importante leguminosa alimentare legata alla tradizione europea e mediterranea, dove un gran numero di varietà locali sono ancora coltivate e mantenute da piccoli agricoltori. Tuttavia, nonostante l’aumento della domanda da parte di consumatori europei, la coltivazione di ceci in Europa è inibita da un mancato investimento nel miglioramento colturale e genetico al fine di creare varietà adatte ai diversi agro ambienti europei e mediterranei. In questo lavoro di tesi è stata studiata la variazione naturale presente nel cece domesticato, sviluppando un’ampia collezione specificatamente creata per gli ambienti europei e del mediterraneo. La collezione è stata caratterizzata a livello genotipico con l’obiettivo di studiare la diversità genetica e relativa struttura del germoplasma di cece domesticato. Accoppiando questi dati con variabili ambientali, disponibili da ecotipi georeferenziati, abbiamo applicato approcci di Landscape genetics per rilevare specifiche associazioni genotipo-ambiente. Inoltre, combinando i dati genomici con la caratterizzazione fenotipica derivante da prove in campo condotte in Italia centrale, è stata eseguita l’analisi di genome wide association GWA, identificando regioni genomiche associate a diversi tratti agronomici. I risultati mostrano come integrando la caratterizzazione genomica, climatica e fenotipica della diversità del germoplasma di cece, si riescono a fornire strumenti molecolari di alta qualità in grado di promuovere programmi europei di miglioramento genetico del cece.
Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) genetic diversity and adaptation to guide crop improvement in the European and Mediterranean environment / Rocchetti, Lorenzo. - (2023 Jun 14).
Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) genetic diversity and adaptation to guide crop improvement in the European and Mediterranean environment
ROCCHETTI, LORENZO
2023-06-14
Abstract
Food Legumes are recognized as important crops to cope with climate changes and to promote food security and nutritional quality as we move toward a plant-based diet transition. Chickpea is an important food legume linked to the European food tradition, where a large number of landraces are still cultivated and maintained by smallholder farmers. However, despite the increase in consumers demand chickpea cultivation in Europe, is hindered by a lack of breeding efforts to create varieties adapted to European and Mediterranean agro- environments. In this thesis, we investigated the domesticated chickpea's natural variation by developing a large collection specifically designed to target the European and Mediterranean environment. The collection was characterized at genotypic level to infer the genetic diversity and population structure of domesticated chickpea germplasm. By coupling these data with environmental variables, available from georeferenced landraces, we applied landscape genomic approaches to detect genotype-environment associations. Moreover, combining the genomic data with the phenotypic characterization from field trials conducted in Central Italy, we performed genome-wide association GWA analysis identifying candidate genomic regions associated with agronomic traits. The results show an integrated genomic, climatic, and phenotypic characterization of chickpea diversity, providing high-quality molecular tools to support European chickpea breeding programs.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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