Implementing a trans-EUROpean PEPper LANDrace collection for resilient agriculture
Activity Coordinator: Pasquale Tripodi
The EUROPEPLAND Activity, submitted by the Solanaceae Working Group for funding under the First Call of the Phase XI ECPGR Activity Grant Scheme, was selected by the Executive Committee and approved in March 2024.
- Activity proposal (895,8 KB)
Implementation
October 2025
In the past few months, the nucleic acid isolation from plant samples has been completed. High-quality DNA was obtained from 400 accessions representing the EuroPepLand collection. Thirty out of the 430 accessions provided by partners did not germinate. This does not constitute a limitation, as it does not impact the diversity of the collection. All partners are adequately represented, displaying an appropriate balance among the various European geographical regions. The first batch of samples was sent in July, and data were delivered in September. So far, 372 accessions have already been genotyped, yielding over 9,900 SNPs. The last plate is currently ongoing, and results are expected before the end of the year. Data will be analyzed once the entire SNP dataset is finalized. Most partners provided the phenotyping data for the accessions they contributed. Information available for the collection beyond passport data includes shape, colour, pungency and fruit size data.
In November, a phenotyping experiment for salt stress will be carried out on selected accessions in order to confirm previous data on materials from the EVA pepper project and some accessions part of the EuroPepLand collection. The experiment will be performed in the phenotyping platform of CREA-OF https://shorturl.at/cKeeD. Leaf samples from the control and salt stress trial will be analyzed for metabolite content in 2026.
May 2025
During a virtual meeting on 14 May 2025, project partners were updated on progress in the processing of pepper samples for genotyping. The current collection encompasses more than 400 landraces from 12 collections with a balanced geographical representation from across Europe, a secondary center of pepper diversification. The project is making good progress with all partners contributing material and expertise. As DNA extraction and genotyping will proceed in the coming months, phenotypic data for priority traits will be collected from historic sources or field trials conducted in 2025 to allow genomic association analyses and for sharing in EURISCO. A next meeting will be held when the genotyping data have been analyzed by late 2025.
The presentation by P. Tripodi is available here (1,7 MB).
April 2025
In this period, activities have focused on the establishment of the core collection. To date, over 430 landrace accessions have been provided by participating genebanks and research institutions. The collection represents the diversity of 12 European countries across the Mediterranean basin and the Balkans, from both coastal and inland regions. Furthermore, it encloses a wide range of variation in terms of fruit shape and size, colour and pungency degree. DNA isolation has already started, with the aim of performing SNP genotyping to infer genetic diversity and define population structure. These data will be linked to other European projects and will be implemented with phenotypic information.
October 2024
The kick-off meeting of the EuroPepLand Activity was held jointly with the EVA Pepper network annual meeting from 30-31 October in Almeria, Spain.
Summary of the meeting | Report | Presentations
Presentations of the EuroPepLand kick-off meeting
30-31 October 2024, Almeria, Spain
| Title | Author |
| Welcome to Almeria (462,8 KB) | Semillas Fito |
| Introduction to EuroPepLand (2,0 MB) | P. Tripodi |
| EuroPepLand work planning (1,8 MB) | P. Tripodi |
| Presentation of collections | |
| Armenia (1,9 MB) | K. Sarikyan |
| Bulgaria (2,3 MB) | V. Masheva |
| Czech Republic (2,4 MB) | H. Stavelikova |
| France (1,3 MB) | M. Bouët, V. Lefebvre |
| Germany (2,2 MB) | U. Lohwasser |
| Greece (737,8 KB) | I. Mellidou |
| Italy (1,3 MB) | R. Giunta |
| Netherlands (956,7 KB) | W. van Dooijeweert |
| North Macedonia (7,7 MB) | S. Ivanovska |
| Romania (3,3 MB) | A. Antal |
| Serbia (4,9 MB) | D. Danojević |
| Spain (3,6 MB) | A. Rodríguez Burruezo |