Resumen
MultiTomCap, involves three entities of recognized prestige (IMIDA, UPV-COMAV and UMH) located in two autonomous communities of the southeast Spain (Region of Murcia and Valencian Community) and focuses on two of the most economical and social important horticultural crops in this area, tomato and sweet pepper. In addition, the IMIDA, UPV-COMAV and UMH consortium presenting this proposal has developed, in collaboration, the previous project Tom2Cap.org, whose results are used as a starting point to achieve the new objectives proposed in this project. The results obtained and the complementarity of the three working teams during the previous project, is a guarantee of success of this new proposal. MultiTomCap, will be a coordinated research project with several shared activities by all the teams among them. In order to achieve the final objective of this proposal, the exchange of knowledge and skills and the combination of experience and networks of the members of the three subprojects is needed. To achieve the objective of increasing the resilience in traditional tomato and pepper varieties using a multiple strategy without negatively affecting main productive and quality characters, a multidisciplinary participation of researches in different fields is needed. The participating entities and in particular, the research teams involved in this proposal have specific experience in the study of the different aspects included in the proposal.
The IMIDA team (subproject 1) contributes its expertise in the development of agronomic strategies to improve crop yields, activate plant defense responses to biotic and abiotic stresses, and increase their content of bioactive compounds and antioxidants (V. Hernandez, P. Hellín and P. Flores). In addition, the team has extensive experience in the development and implementation of methodologies for the evaluation of morphological, organoleptic and compositional aspects that determine the quality and composition of fruits (P. Hellín and P. Flores. In addition, the participation of the E. Sánchez, researcher in charge of the horticultural collection of IMIDA's germplasm bank (BAGERIM), endorses a deep knowledge of the used germplasm resources. The UMH team (subproject 2) has extensive experience in the traditional tomato cultivars breeding (S. García and J.J. Ruiz), in particular, the most important viruses that affect tomatoes in southeastern Spain (Tomato mosaic virus, Tomato spotted wilt virus and Tomato yellow leaf curl virus), the use of marker-assisted selection (A. Alonso) and quality and functional evaluation (A. Amorós). The UPV-COMAV team (subproject 3) brings its large experience on genetics and breeding of solanaceae vegetables, mainly Capsicum peppers and fruit quality analyses (A. Rodriguez), gene expression and physiological response of
plants to biotic and abiotic stress (M. Boscaiu, M. Díez and A. De Luis) and plant-soil interaction (C. Palloti). In addition, MultiTomCap will be a coordinated research project with several shared activities by all the teams among them. In order to achieve the final objective of this proposal, the exchange of knowledge and skills and the combination of experience and networks of the members of the three subprojects is needed.
