COMAV


		THE COMAV

		Introduction
		Targets
		Research lines

GENEBANK
		Enter

	DATABASES
		Cucurbits
		Physalis
		Cyphomandra
		S. muricatum

		CUCURBITS WORKING GROUP
		Creation

		Targets

		Members

		ECCUDB

		STAFF
		Enter

		PUBLICATIONS
		Publications

At the beginning of eighties, collecting activities of horticultural species germplasm begun, resulting in the stablishment of the current Genebank of the Polythechnical University of Valencia. More than 7000 accesions belonging to a lot of horticultural species are currently hosted and manteined, including local varieties and wild species.
Fast increasing of staff number and of the number of research lines of the original group, resulted in the need of the stablish- ment of a Research Institute to carry out, in a coordinated way, the objectives of germplasm conservation and improvement of horticultural species. Thus, the center for the conservation and breeding of the agrodiverdity(COMAV), was created on May-27-1999.

	The genebank of the Polytechnical University of Valencia begun its activities at the beginnig of eighties. Main activities developed at Genebank are described below::
	Collecting Conservation Characterization	Evaluation Computerization and documentation Safety duplicates

The European Central Cucurbits Database, mantains information of passport, characterization and evaluation data belonging to many species of Cucurbits hosted at the European Genebanks. Approximately 25000 accesions of cucurbits will be introduced into the database. Currently, 2312 accesions conforms the passport data hosted at ECCUDB.

INFORMAL CUCURBITS WORKING GROUP Background The European Cooperative Programme for Crop Genetic Resources Networks (ECP/GR) is a collaborative programme among most European countries aimed at ensuring the long-term conservation and facilitating the increased utilization of plant genetic resources in Europe. The Programme is coordinated by the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (IPGRI), operates through ten broadly focused Networks dealing with groups of crops or general themes related to plant genetic resources. In May 2000, in Vila Real, Portugal, the ECP/GR Vegetables Network Coordinating Group recommended also extending collaborative activities to Solanaceae, Cucurbits and Leafy Vegetables and included these crops within the Network’s mandate. An “Informal Cucurbits Working Group” was formed to start collaboration on genetic resources of some Cucurbitaceae species, mainly cucumber, melons, watermelon, gourds, pumpkin, zucchini and other minor cultivated and wild cucurbits. Within this context, some ECP/GR members attended the second meeting of the EU-funded Cucumis melo project GEN RES 108 on “Management, conservation and valorization on genetic resources of C. melo and wild relatives”. This first meeting of the “Cucurbits Informal Group”, held in Adana, Turkey on 19 January 2002 (see article from Newsletter Issue 23, 2002 [here]), brought together most of the European institutions (from EU and non-EU countries) holding important collections of cultivated cucurbits and their wild relatives. To formalize this networking initiative and to ensure more stable financial support, the Group will submit a request for the establishment of a Working Group on Cucurbitaceae to the next meeting of the Steering Committee of ECP/GR in 2003. A full report of the meeting will be available later in the year from the ECP/GR Secretariat.
	COMAV-2002