Improving production efficiency of African Eggplant (Solanum aethiopicum) for smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa

营养不良影响到地球上三分之一的人，20亿人缺乏一种或多种微量营养素。在撒哈拉以南非洲，营养不良是一个长期问题。生物多样性营养园艺作物的可持续生产和消费是解决这一问题的关键。非洲种植了许多本地蔬菜品种，主要由女性生产者在当地市场销售，作为减轻贫困的收入来源。然而，这些作物中有许多研究不足，其全部潜力尚未实现。非洲茄子（Solanum aethiopicum）就是这样一种作物。它在西非和东非都被广泛消费，作为一种多叶蔬菜和水果。Solanum aethiopicum与Solanum melongena、茄子/茄子以及番茄、番茄和马铃薯、马铃薯密切相关。与这些茄属物种相似，土壤水分的可用性和土壤的健康，如疾病的存在或不存在所定义的，将极大地影响生产力和营养含量。因此，通过更好的水资源管理战略、改善土壤健康和种植更能适应水资源压力的品种，非洲茄子的生产潜力巨大。在这里，我们将采用两种主要方法来最大限度地提高非洲茄子产量：1）开发新的植物和作物管理策略，以提高产量; 2）通过遗传多样性来确定非洲茄子的抗旱能力。为了提供灌溉非洲茄子的最佳实践，我们将研究当前商业品种对一系列土壤水分亏缺的反应。在受控条件下，我们将确定支持最佳产量和营养质量的土壤基质势和体积含水量的范围。我们将测试使用高光谱成像的潜力，以确定植物水分胁迫的发病及其作为一种工具，以确定水弹性线。在实地试验之前，将在非洲的盆栽试验中进一步研究对土壤水分亏缺的反应。我们还将确定在田间种植之前，苗圃植物是否可以对土壤水分胁迫和土壤健康具有更大的适应力。这将通过使用温和的萎蔫胁迫和使用丛枝菌根来诱导更好的植物性能来完成。我们的最终植物管理策略是改善土壤健康。首先，我们将对非洲农场土壤中存在的DNA进行测序，以了解存在的微生物，从而了解土壤健康。这将告知哪些土壤改良剂最有可能改善土壤健康，并将在农场进行测试。我们将评估这些管理措施对非洲茄子生产力的影响，并考虑到经济成本和农民对制定最佳实践指南的偏好。在改进作物管理的同时，我们将收集大量的种质。为了了解潜在的多样性，我们将对20个品种的基因组进行重新测序，并确定变异。我们将在我们的收藏和评估，与农民，160个加入干旱易发地区，并确定哪些线更适应低土壤水分供应。根据农民的反馈，我们将在表型上更详细地分析优选的加入物，并启动最佳表现品系的杂交，以推进当前的育种计划。为了帮助了解育种工作，我们将研究非洲茄子的种群，这些茄子因其在土壤水分亏缺增加的情况下生长的能力而分离。我们将确定与更好的抗旱能力有关的分子标记，这些标记可以用于育种计划。

Malnutrition affects one in three people on the planet, with 2 billion people being deficient in one or more micronutrients. In Sub-Saharan Africa malnutrition is a chronic problem. The sustainable production and consumption of biodiverse nutritious horticultural crops provide a key part of the solution to this problem. There are many indigenous vegetable species that are grown in Africa and sold in local markets, mainly by female producers, as a source of income to alleviate their poverty. However, many of these crops are under-researched and their full potential has not been realised. African eggplant, Solanum aethiopicum, is such a crop. It is widely consumed across both West and East Africa as a leafy vegetable and also as a fruit. Solanum aethiopicum is closely related to Solanum melongena, aubergine/eggplant, and to tomato, Solanum lycopersicum and potato, Solanum tuberosum. Similar to these Solanum species, the availability of soil water and the health of the soil, as defined by the presence or absence of diseases, will greatly affect productivity and nutritive content. There is therefore an immense potential to improve the production of African eggplant through better water management strategies, improving soil health and growing varieties that are more resilient to water stress. Here we will adopt two major approaches to maximise African eggplant production: 1) developing new plant and crop management strategies to improve production; 2) characterise the genetic diversity towards identifying more drought resilient accessions of African eggplant. To inform best practice for irrigating African eggplant we will characterise the current commercial varieties' responses to a range of soil water deficits. Under controlled conditions we will identify the range of soil matric potentials and volumetric water contents that support optimum yields and nutritive quality. We will test the potential of using hyperspectral imaging to identify the onset of plant water stress and its use as a tool to identify water resilient lines. Responses to soil water deficits will be further investigated in pot experiments in Africa prior to testing in the field. We will also determine if nursery plants can be primed for a greater resilience to soil water stress and soil health before planting in the field. This will be done by using a mild wilting stress and the use of arbuscular mycorrhiza to induce better plant performance. Our final plant management strategy is to improve soil health. First we will characterise the DNA present in the soil on African farms to gain understanding of the microbes present and thus soil health. This will inform which soil amendments will have greatest potential to improve soil health, and these will be tested on the farms. We will assess the effect of these management practices on African eggplant productivity and take into account the economic cost and farmer preference towards generating best practice guides. At the same time as improving crop management we will characterise the extensive germplasm in our collection. To gain understanding of the potential diversity we will resequence the genomes of 20 accessions and identify the variation. We will multiply the seed in our collection and evaluate, in association with farmers, 160 accessions in drought-prone areas and characterise which lines are more resilient to low soil water availability. Based on farmer feedback we will phenotypically characterise in more detail the preferred accessions and initiate crosses of the best performing lines to advance current breeding programmes. To help inform breeding efforts, we will characterise a population of African eggplants that segregate for their ability to grow under increasing soil water deficits. We will identify molecular markers that are linked to better drought resilience that can be deployed in the breeding programmes.