Detalle de: Reproductive biology, phenomics and genomics in subtropical fruit tree crops

In the last few years we have been witnessing a paradigm change in subtropical fruits, that has switched from a local consumption centered in underdeveloped or developing countries to an increasing commercial importance worldwide. The particular situation of Spain as the only European country with a significant commercial production of subtropical fruits allows us to be a major player at the international level in scientific studies of these crops. This project is a continuation of previous projects funded by the Plan Nacional (the most recent, AGL2013-43732-R, still ongoing, on the identification of bottlenecks at the reproductive level that limit production and fruit set and on the development of advanced selection tools in subtropical fruit crops) and other funding bodies, such as the European Union, the BBVA Foundation, CYTED, the Junta de Andalucía or CSIC. As a result of the effort performed previously, we are currently in a position to continue moving forward in building knowledge in these crops combining basic and applied research in a new multidisciplinary project that proposes specific advances based on results obtained in the past. The main objective of this proposal is to optimize a sustainable production in subtropical fruit crops in mediterranean climates. This main objective is divided in three specific objectives; the first 1) studies the limitations at the reproductive level that jeopardize production, the second 2) is based on the availability of a thoroughlly characterized plant material through the study and conservation of genetic diversity and phenomics and the third 3) is focused on the utilization of genomic tools to identify genes of interest, genetic diversity and develop new varieties. This is clearly a multidisciplinary proposal that combines microscopic estudies with field work, molecular and biotechnological tools and geographic information system analyses. The new information derived from this project will have both basic and applied implications. The phylogenetic situation of two of the species studied (cherimoya and avocado) among the early divergent angiosperms provides the results obtained with clear implications for the study of the evolution of reproductive biology in flowering plants. In terms of the impact on the growers, in avocado, the objective is to be able to produce avocados in Spain all year round with an appropriate combination of cultivars that will allow a clear differentiation of the Spanish avocadoes from those imported from other countries; in cherimoya, besides the diversification in the production thanks to a variety recently released by our group with excellent organoleptic properties in the winter months, the success of this fruit in the European market will be highly dependent on the development of seedless cherimoyas; in mango our goal is to expand the window of production from august to december with the right combination of cutivars. In addition, the proposal has a clear internationalization component through the current scientific collaborations and the transfer of the results obtained to developing countries through the projects and networks in which this group is involved