Daucus, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, 2015

Introduction

Although the global GENESYS database currently includes 7,043 Daucus accessions in 2015, relatively few originate from Central Asia - widely regarded as a centre of diversity for the species. Detailed analysis of the GRIN and EURISCO databases revealed that only 120 accessions from this region are available for distribution at the time of writing (see Table 1).

Given the limited number of accessions from this key region - where high genetic diversity of Daucus carota is expected - a collecting expedition was conducted in 2015 in Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. The aim was to enrich ex situ collections with additional wild populations and, where relevant, landraces.

An analysis of the 120 accessions from Central Asia showed that 61% (73 accessions) are classified as landraces. Consequently, the expedition focused primarily on collecting wild populations to better represent the genetic diversity of the species.

The expedition led to the successful addition of 104 accessions to the CGN Daucus collection so far.

Table 1. Number of available Daucus accessions from Central Asian countries (GRIN and EURISCO databases).