On September 8, 2020, the GOCITRUS Webinar: Innovation in the identification and varietal management of citrus fruits was held, aimed at showcasing the advancements of this innovative project. The event brought together more than 150 representatives from the citrus sector, including companies, research centers, universities, and the Administration itself. The meeting was inaugurated by Isabel Bombal, General Director of Rural Development, Innovation, and Agro-food Training at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food, who stated that “Spain was the country with the most scheduled and effectively granted initiatives in the previous call, and GOCITRUS is a good example of how companies in this sector are capable of providing innovative solutions to complex problems”. Additionally, Bombal wanted to highlight the integrating role of the biotechnology platform that has managed to connect all members of this consortium, BIOVEGEN, and the role of Anecoop, which coordinates it.
The project, initiated in January 2020, is to some extent the natural development of the largest varietal genomic research ever conducted on citrus – the Citruseq-Citrusgenn project, which involved a public-private investment of 7.5 million euros. In fact, its current members are almost the same as those from then. By virtue of this mega-study, sequencing of more than 250 species of citrus – some of them ‘ancestral’ – patterns and varieties was achieved. Today, this immense work, plus contributions from other centers, allows GOCITRUS to have a genomic database that will encompass, by the end of this year, a third of the currently existing commercial citrus varieties (83 varieties have already been sequenced, another 24 are in progress, out of a total of 324 registered). With this material, the project will obtain, by mid-2021, molecular markers to identify without risk of error 25% of the commercial varieties currently existing in the mandarin group and 10% of the orange varieties, which will include the majority of the protected and most in-demand ones. The basic research developed in Citruseq-Citrusgenn will now allow us to create key tools to boost the Spanish citrus production sector, differentiating it from the rest of the world – which does not have this technology – and enable us to address an intelligent varietal revolution for the benefit of the citrus grower and the Spanish export sector, explained the project’s chief researcher, who was then the director of the Genomics Center at the Valencian Institute of Agricultural Research (IVIA), Manuel Talón.
The doctor in biotechnology, current Production and Development technician at Anecoop, Victoria Ibáñez, intervened afterward to provide more details regarding this technique. She clarified that molecular markers—which are nothing more than the location of a fragment of DNA that is unique and exclusive to the variety—have already been implemented and successfully applied in the case of the Tango mandarin (registered in the EU as Tang Gold), which is exploited by the company Eurosemillas, also part of Gocitrus. Thanks to this unequivocal identification, as in the cited case, a complete varietal certification system can be built that not only distinguishes this variety from any other to prevent varietal fraud but also “guarantees the traceability of the fruit from field to table“. Ibáñez also clarified that this technology is “affordable, applicable to any plant species, and samples to verify the marker can be extracted at any stage of the plant’s development (seedling, tree)“. She ventured to specify further details: the time required to obtain such a marker would be only 5 or 6 months; the cost could range between 10,000 and 25,000 euros per variety, and, once achieved, the results of the analyses to verify the authenticity of the citrus in question would cost an individual (much less for a company conducting them on a large scale to certify the variety they exploit) between 50 and 100 euros.
“Today, to make the right choice of variety, one must stay up-to-date, attend events where new varieties are presented and their behavior or management is described, consult numerous sources to verify that it is agronomically suitable for the farm in question…” began explaining Carlos Baixauli, director of the Cajamar Experiential Center, in the final intervention of the webinar. “With our application, from the mobile or tablet, it will only be necessary to input the parameters of our operation, and the program will process all the stored information to select or guide the user on the variety of mandarins/oranges and the combination of rootstock that interests them the most,” clarified Baixauli immediately after.
The APP will process information from a significant plurality of sources and will be updated each season. It will contain information from the varietal sheets of IVIA and the harvest calendar that groups them by whether they are ultra-early, early, mid-season, late, or ultra-late. It will also integrate the average climatic data from the last years of the closest season and will allow the interested party to specify if, based on their experience, the plot is particularly prone to frost. It will issue an alert to the user if, due to the location of their land, there is a nearby presence of hybrid mandarin varieties that could facilitate cross-pollination and the presence of seeds in the fruit. And, as important or more than the choice of variety, the application will assist the user in selecting the rootstock that best adapts to the climatic conditions of the plot, the characteristics of the land (water salinity, limestone, water stress) or will propose updated alternatives if necessary to seek rootstocks that are resistant or tolerant to certain viruses – such as tristeza – or fungal diseases. It is even being considered to integrate commercial data, such as the historical quotations from the Citrus Exchange or a list of certified nurseries where the selected material can be purchased.
Event program:
5:30 PM Presentation
- Isabel Bombal Díaz. General Director of Rural Development, Innovation, and Agricultural Training. Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food.
5:40 PM. Presentation of the innovative project GOCITRUS
- Manuel Talón. Director of Genomics Center – IVIA
6:00 PM. Unambiguous identification of commercial varieties of citrus
- Victoria Ibáñez. Anecoop
6:20 PM. APP GOCITRUS
- Carlos Baixauli Soria. Experiences Center of Cajamar.
6:40 PM. Debate panel. Participation of all GOCITRUS partners
7:00 PM. Closing