LOURIZÁN FORESTRY RESEARCH CENTRE IS RECOGNISED AS THE REFERENCE IN CHESTNUT TREE RESEARCHS

18 January, 2018

This decision will make able to recognise the different commercial varieties existing in Galicia and also in the rest of Spain, which will make possible a specialization of the sector

The Spanish Office of Plant Varieties (OEVV) relies on the General Sub-directorate for Means of Agricultural Production, which relies on the Directorate for Production and Agricultural Means of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment. Its function is to regulate everything related to the obtainment, characterization and evaluation of plant varieties, and the inclusion in the Variety Register (RV).



Variety registration procedures in the RV require a technical comparison test with varieties of reference included in the reference collection, in accordance with the OEVV technical protocol for each species, taking into account the international specifications of the International Union for the Protection of Plants Obtainment (UPOV) and the OCVV.The OEVV of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment needs the realization of identifications both in laboratory and in a reference collection of each species. For this, it has been supported in specialized research centres in a species or group of species, which are responsible for carrying out the different tests. From now on, this centre acts as Reference Centre.



In order to perform these functions, the OEVV establishes collaboration agreements with research centres of the Autonomous Communities through the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment for the realization of the work related to the techhnical examination of variety identification of determined species for the registration of plant varieties. In this case, Lourizán Forestry Research Centre has been chosen by the OEVV for the following reasons:



1. Lourizán is the first Spanish centre which began the identification of chestnut varieties. It is also the first one that requested the inscription of traditional chestnut varieties cultivated in Galicia in the Commercial Varieties Register at national level.



2. Lourizán has the necessary equipment and training to carry out identification activities. His laboratory has the equipment to perform PCR and a 8 capillary sequencer. With experience in identification techniques and databases of 10 microsatellites for about 2,500 chestnut accessions.



3. Experience in the UPOV descriptors for chestnut tress, applied in the traditional varieties and in the interspecific hybrids.