Spinach, Armenia and Azerbaijan, 2011

Introduction

Collecting landraces of spinach (Spinacia oleracea) and its wild crossable relative S. tetrandra was the aim of this expedition, which made this expedition a single crop expedition. Spinach and its wild relative S. tetrandra were chosen because the variation present in the available ex situ collections worldwide of spinach and its two wild relatives was considered too low by CGN and its stakeholders. In this respect the international spinach database shows, that around 2000 Spinacia accessions are available in genebanks worldwide of which ca. 700 accessions of spinach landraces and ca. 25 accessions of the two wild relatives of spinach (S. turkestanica and S. tetrandra).

The two wild relatives are especially of importance for breeders as they proved to be a unique gene reservoir in case of the development of cultivars resistant to Peronospora farinosa. Furthermore it could be expected that also genes important for drought tolerance and growth under nutrient poor conditions can be found in these wild species.

Documents

Report of a Spinacia collecting mission to Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Material

Download an Excel file with all material of this mission that is available: 45 accessions (in EURISCO format).

Articles

• van Treuren R., L. de Groot, H. Hisoriev, F. Khassanov, V. Farzaliyev, G. Melyan, I. Gabrielyan, L. van Soest, C. Tulmans, D. Courand, J. de Visser, R. Kimura, J. C. Boshoven, T. Kanda, R. Goossens, M. Verhoef, J. Dijkstra & C. Kik (2019). Acquisition and regeneration of Spinacia turkestanica and S. tetrandra to improve a spinach genebank collection. GRACE 67, 549-559; doi.org/10.1007/s10722-019-00792-8.
• Ribera A., Y. Bai, A.M.A. Wolters, R. van Treuren & C Kik (2020).. A review on the genetic resources, domestication and breeding history of spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.). Euphytica 216, 48; doi.org/10.1007/s10681-020-02585-y.
• Ribera A., R. van Treuren, C. Kik, Y. Bai & A.M.A. Wolters (2021). On the origin and dispersal of cultivated spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.). GRACE 68, 1023-1032; doi.org/10.1007/s10722-020-01042-y.
• Gyawali, S., G. Bhattarai, A. Shi, C. Kik & L.J. du Toit (2021). Genetic diversity, structure, and selective sweeps in Spinacia turkestanica associated with the domestication of cultivated spinach. Frontiers in Genetics 12: 740437. doi.org: 10.3389/fgene.2021.740437.

Young flowering female (left) and male (right) S. tetrandra plants in Nakhichevan and overview of site.

Collecting site near Urtsador (Armenia), the vegetation aspect is dominated by Artemisia flagrans, a species with silverish gray coloured leaves and stems.