Detalle de: Utilization of genetic resources in subtropical fruit crops through genomics and reproductive biology approaches

Tropical and subtropical fruit crops are fundamental for food security in most underdeveloped or developing countries, although their commercial importance is significantly increasing worldwide. In this sense, Spain is the only European country with a significant production of subtropical fruits. In addition to the production in the Canary Islands, in the Iberian Peninsula, this production is primarily localized in the Andalusian Mediterranean coast, mainly in the provinces of Malaga and Granada. This 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. The results obtained in previous projects have enabled important advances in the development and application of molecular markers in subtropical fruit tree crops as well as in elucidating the mechanisms present in the flower that regulate fruit set and production in these species. This new proposal is the continuation of two ongoing research projects that will end in 2019 (AGL2016-77267- R and AGL2015-74071-JIN) with the objective of advancing synergistically towards a sustainable optimization of subtropical fruit production in continental Europe. As a result of the efforts performed in previous projects, 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 project is structured along two main objectives aimed to optimize a sustainable production of subtropical fruits in continental Europe. The proposal covers different crops for which the project is structured differently depending of the advances obtained in each of them in previous projects. The first objective 1) is based in the availability of a wellcharacterized unique germplasm in Europe to use genomic tools to identify genes of agronomic interest that can result in the development of new varieties and rootstocks. The second objective 2) is focused on the limitations at the reproductive level of fruit production involving germline development, pollen-pistil interaction and embryogenesis and fruit set. This is clearly a multidisciplinary proposal that combines advanced microscopic studies 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.