Bertin, P.

GENETIC VARIABILITY OF CROP SPECIES

GROUP LEADER 

PIERRE BERTIN	Profile
	Prof. Pierre Bertin is the group leader of the research on genetic variability of crop species in the laboratory of Ecophysiology and Plant Breeding. Bioengineer and Ph.D. in plant biotechnology at UCL (1995). Postdoctoral training at CRAW (Gembloux, Belgium) in plant breeding. Professor at UCL since 1998. Fields of expertise:  Plant physiology Genetic diversity Molecular markers applied to plant breeding
Unité d’écophysiologie et amélioration végétale  Bt. De Serres(b. 226) 2 Croix du Sud (Box 11) B-1348 Louvain-la-Neuve-Belgium	Email : Tel. +32 10 47 39 04 Fax. +32 10 47 20 21

RESEARCH OVERVIEW

The study of the genetic diversity of crop species and their relatives appears of primary importance for the design of plant improvement strategies. Agricultural and breeding practices may lead to the narrowing of the genetic basis of crops. Therefore, strategies to conserve and exploit the available variability appears of high significance for the future of plant breeding. The genetic variability is studied in a two-way approach : the general genetic structure of the populations of crop species and the allelic variation for specific genes involved in the determinism of useful characters.

Genetic diversity of populations of crop species

The general objective is the fundamental study of the genetic structure (groups, levels of variability within and between cultivars, influence of conservation strategies) of crop species in relation with their breeding schemes in view of establishing conservation strategies.

Species 

• Andean tubers: Oxalis tuberosa, Tropaeolum tuberosum, Ullucus tuberosus, Solanum ssp.
• African Cucurbitaceae: Citrullus lanatus, Cucumeropsis manii, Cucumis melo var agrestis, Lagenaria siceraria.
• Spelt: Triticum aestivum spelta.

Resistance to abiotic stresses – ferrous iron toxicity in cultivated rices (Oryza sativa and O. glaberrima)

The specific objectives of this research are:

• Determine the growth parameters allowing an accurate evaluation of ferrous iron toxicity;
• Determine the response of the plants in terms of toxicity symptoms and resistance mechanisms
• Determine the variability of the characters and potential interesting phenotypes though varietal screening
• Search for QTLs through the study of a segregation population

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