Table 1. Number of available Daucus accessions from Central Asian countries (GRIN and EURISCO databases).
Country | GRIN | GRIN/EURISCO | EURISCO | Total |
Afghanistan | 3 | 17 | 3 | 23 |
Iran | 1 | 15 | 9 | 25 |
Kazakhstan | 6 | 0 | 1 | 7 |
Kyrgyzstan | 1 | 0 | 8 | 9 |
Pakistan | 1 | 8 | 4 | 13 |
Tajikistan | 4 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
Turkmenistan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Uzbekistan | 15 | 0 | 23 | 38 |
Total | 31 | 40 | 49 | 120 |
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.