Exploring vanilla biodiversity from the Caribbean to the Indian ocean to the Pacific
Better know, preserve and enhance the biodiversity of vanilla in European tropical regions, this is the objective of the research project VaBiome, which was launched in March 2012, within the Net-Biome network. The project is funded by the national agency of research (ANR) and the Reunion Region.
For each territory, involved in the VaBiome project, the objective is to better know, preserve and improve its vanilla. For La Reunion and Tahiti, it is above all to improve its quality; for Guadeloupe, to start or revive a production of vanilla, but also preserve wild species, as in Mayotte in the Comoros area. The aim is, for the researchers involved, to identify and study the biodiversity of vanilla, via surveys in forests or plantations, mainly in Guadeloupe and the Comoros. Then follows a study of genetic diversity, leading to the last step: the improvement of the quality of cultivated vanilla and the protection of wild species.
After a launch workshop at the Pôle de Protection des Plantes in Saint-Pierre, Reunion island, from 6th to 9th of March, 2012, the teams from Tahiti, Guadeloupe, Réunion, Mayotte and Paris gathered from the 22d to 26th of May 2014 in Guadeloupe under the aegis of the National Park for a mid-term meeting.
Vabiome comes to an end on the 31th of August 2015. The participants will gather for a meeting of work and final restitution from the 13th to the 17th of July in Raiatea in French Polynesia organized by EVT.
Many knowledge on the ecology and the evolution of species of the genus Vanilla (including V.humblotii in Comoros, V. mexicana in Guadeloupe, and species of the germplasm collections of the CRB Vatel in Reunion and the EVT in Polynesia) have been acquired (genetics, cytogenetics, floral perfumes, disease resistance) and have resulted in concrete preservation and improvement actions.Thus, the research targeted a species native and endangered in Mayotte and the Comoros, V. humblotii, and allowed to start actions of preservation both in situ and ex situ in Mayotte and the drafting of a National Plan of Action (PNA). The tropical American species V. pompona was used as a parent in a cross with the species cultivated in Polynesia V. × tahitensis to produce offspring in which important agronomic characters are being evaluated. A new variety of the species cultivated in La Reunion, V. planifolia, improved for its resistance to the Fusarium fungus has also been selected.
The VaBiome team in Raiatea
