SolCAP: Solanaceae Coordinated Agricultural Project
OVERVIEW
Translating Solanaceae sequence diversity and trait variation into applied outcomes through integrative research, education, and extension.
The
Solanaceae Coordinated Agricultural Project (SolCAP) brings
together an integrated team of researchers, educators and extension
specialists at Michigan State University, The Ohio State University,
Cornell University, University of California at Davis and Oregon State
University to incorporate emerging DNA-sequence data into efforts to
improve vegetable crops. Potato and tomato are the two most
important vegetable crops and are also members of the Solanaceae, a
taxonomic family that includes pepper, eggplant, and petunia. The
project will identify DNA sequence variation in genes associated with
high value traits, such as carbohydrate and vitamin content.
SolCAP will support centralized facilities for characterizing DNA
sequence variation in relevant potato and tomato lines, a database
hosted by the Solanaceae Genomics Network to access, curate and share
information, and leverage tools developed for further characterization
of agronomic, disease/insect resistance and quality traits by the
potato and tomato research and breeding communities as a whole.
SolCAP scientists will also develop a course for graduate students,
offer workshops and practical training for plant breeders, and develop
a community of learning for extension specialists via the eXtension web
portal. SolCAP will also provide leadership to the rice, wheat, barley
and conifer CAPs to create a broad eXtension effort. By providing tools
to identify and manipulate key genes, SolCAP will accelerate the
development of varieties with enhanced quality, nutrition, and
resistance to diseases and insects, thus benefiting both consumers and
the environment.
