- Concept Note for SP1 Commissioned Research:

- Task Title: Supporting distribution of reference germplasm

- Involved institutions: The International Centre for Agricultural research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), P.O. Box 5466, Aleppo, Syria

For barley, wheat and chickpea

- Proposed Task Leaders

Dr. Jan Valkoun, Head of Genetic Resource Unit, J.Valkoun@cgiar.org

- Rationale and Objective

Barley: in the first year we were engaged together with Chinese Academy of Agricultural Science (CAAS) in genotyping 500 accessions of barley. ICARDA provided to CAAS 308 accessions from ICARDA’s global barley collection and 123 Syrian and Jordanian landraces (we assumed that some accessions could be lost during germination) CAAS contributed with 200 Chinese landraces (the material has not been received by ICARDA yet). As soon as all the germplasm has been genotyped, we will be selecting the mini core collections of 48 accessions, best adapted for allele discovery.

In 2005 we will genotype 2500 accessions and after compiling the data of the total 3000 accessions, we will select a reference sample of about 500 accessions which will be promoted for use in phenotyping experiments and further molecular characterization with potential functional markers. We will multiply, secure, and supply the corresponding accessions on request. The multiplication of the accessions will be conducted under controlled conditions to avoid crosspollination.

- Foreseen activities:

• Handling the designated accessions as genetic stocks with monitoring of quality, purity and availability

• Distributing founder seed in view of subsequent characterization

• Centralizing records on characterization data

- Indicative budget:  220 k$ (20 k$ for barley)