Buckwheat Germplasm in the World

Meiliang Zhou, Ivan Kreft, Galina Suvorova, Yu Tang, Sun-Hee Woo

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9780128110072
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Science General
• Index: Biological Sciences

Buckwheat Germplasm in the World offers an overview of this globally important crop, including its general characterization and genetic diversity—particularly in Russia, China, India and Eastern Europe. The book presents the latest research on molecular marker development, genetics and phenotype analysis of new wild buckwheat to examine the nutritional values of this pseudocereal crop. Due to its short growth span, ability to grow at high altitudes and the high quality of its protein content, buckwheat is considered an important crop for addressing global food needs. Ideal for researchers and advanced-level students seeking better understanding of the buckwheat germplasm.

• Summarizes all the reported and distributed buckwheat species in the world
• Offers researchers the ability to exchange resources with each other to breed new cultivars
• Classifies buckwheat species based on perennial and annual from their growth span, and self-incompatible or self-compatible from their flower morphology and characterization
• Facilitates hybridization of different species

Chapter One

Overview of Buckwheat Resources in the World

Meiliang Zhou¹, Yu Tang², Xianyu Deng³, Chen Ruan³, Ivan Kreft⁴, Yixiong Tang⁵ and Yanmin Wu⁵, ¹Institute of Crop Sciences, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China, ²Sichuan Tourism University, Chengdu, China, ³Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, Yunnan, China, ⁴Nutrition Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia, ⁵Biotechnology Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing, China

Abstract

Buckwheat is a dicotyledonous herb which belongs to the Polygonaceae family and the Fagopyrum genus. Buckwheat is a joint name of two cultivated species, common buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench) and Tartary buckwheat (Fagopyrum tataricum Gaertn). Though it is actually not a kind of triticeae, the usages of buckwheat seeds (achenes) are quite similar to graminaceous crops, so the agriculturists judge it as a kind of triticeae. Various popular names given to buckwheat have been used to trace its migration through Asia and Europe and are still used to confirm the origin of buckwheat. Today common buckwheat is called ogal in India, mite phapar in Nepal, jare in Bhutan, grecicha kul’turnaja in Russia. grechka in Ukraine and gryka, tatarka gryka, or poganka in Poland. It is called pohanka in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In Sweden it is bovete, in Denmark boghvede, and in Finland common buckwheat is tattari. In Slovenia it is ajda, hajdina, or idina, in Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, and Croatia it is heljda. In France it is called sarrasin, blé noir, renouée, and bouquette; in Breton (North-Western France) it is gwinizh-du, in Italy fagopiro, grano saraceno, sarasin, and faggina, and in Germany Buchweizen or Heidekorn (Hammer 1986). In Korean it is maemil. It is referred to as soba in Japan where the same word also is used for buckwheat noodles. In Mandarin common buckwheat is called tian qiao mai while Tartary buckwheat is referred to as ku qiao mai. Buckwheat is widely cultivated around the world and in some areas it is a major crop. Buckwheat seeds are rich in proteins with well-balanced amino acid composition, fibers, vitamins and minerals. The content of flavonoids, a kind of bioactive substance, is also substantial. Treated as a functional food, buckwheat has drawn the attention of the wider world.

Keywords

Common buckwheat; Tartary buckwheat; global cultivation; global distribution; Fagopyrum genus; plant genetic resources; seed samples; germplasm resources

Buckwheat is a dicotyledonous herb which belongs to the Polygonaceae family and Fagopyrum genus. Buckwheat is a joint name of two cultivated species, common buckwheat (F. esculentum Moench) and Tartary buckwheat (F. tataricum Gaertn). Although it is actually not a kind of triticeae, the usage of buckwheat seeds (achenes) are quiet similar to graminaceous crops, so the agriculturists judge it as a kind of triticeae. Various popular names given to buckwheat have been used to trace its migration through Asia and Europe and are still used to confirm the origin of buckwheat. Today common buckwheat is called ogal in India, mite phapar in Nepal, jare in Bhutan, and grecicha kul’turnaja in Russia. grechka in Ukrainian and gryka, tatarka gryka, or poganka in Poland. It is called pohanka in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In Sweden it is bovete, in Denmark boghvede, and in Finland common buckwheat is tattari. In Slovenia it is ajda, hajdina, or idina, in Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, and Croatia it is heljda. In French it is called sarrasin, blé noir, renouée, bouquette; in Breton (North-Western France) it is gwinizh-du, in Italy fagopiro, grano saraceno, sarasin, faggina, and in Germany Buchweizen or Heidekorn (Hammer, 1986). In Korean it is maemil. It is referred to as soba in Japan where the same word also is used for buckwheat noodles. In Mandarin common buckwheat is called tian qiao mai while Tartary buckwheat is referred to as ku qiao mai.

Buckwheat is widely cultivated around the world and in some areas it is a major crop. Buckwheat seeds are rich in proteins with well-balanced amino acid composition, fibers, vitamins, and minerals. The content of flavonoids, a kind of bioactive substance, is also substantial. Treated as a functional food, buckwheat has drawn the attention of the wider world.

The Origin and Diffuseness of Cultivated Buckwheat

Over a century ago, the Swiss plant taxonomist De Candolle (1883) raised the theory of a buckwheat origin area, claiming that buckwheat originated from Siberia and the northern part of China. In 1957, Nakao (1957) pointed out that De Candolle was not correct, for there were a lot of wild buckwheat species widely spread in the southern part of China, which indicated that the southern part of China may be the original place of buckwheat rather than Siberia or the northern part of China.

Since the 1980s, Chinese agriculturists and buckwheat researchers discovered a lot of wild buckwheat species in the southwestern part of China, and based on these findings developed some new perspectives. Jiang and Jia (1992) suggested that the Daliangshan region was one of the places of origin of Tartary buckwheat, based on the large amount of wild buckwheat, special ecological conditions, folklore, and customs regarding buckwheat in this region. Li and Yang (1992) suggested that, based on the research of buckwheat history, human history, and the national history of Yunnan, buckwheat should have originated from the southwestern part of China, on the east side of the Himalayas. More specifically, Yunnan and the Daliangshan and Xiaoliangshan regions, which were the borderlands of Yunnan and Sichuan, should be the place of origin of buckwheat. Ye and Guo (1992) suggested that from the comment of botany, the southwestern part of China was not only the differentiation and spread center, but also the original place of the Fagopyrum Mill.

Ohnishi (1995,1998a,1998b,2004) studied the F. esculentum ssp. ancestrale using morphology, reproductive biology, isozyme analysis, RAPD, and AFLP, and he confirmed the wild relative species F. esculentum ssp. ancestrale as the ancestor of cultivated species F. esculentum Moench. Tsuji and Ohnishi (2000,2001a,2001b) studied the relationship between the wild relative species F. tataricum ssp. potanini and the cultivated species F. tataricum Gaertn using isozyme analysis, RAPD, and AFLP. Based on their research they suggested that the eastern part of Tibet and the joint area of Yunnan and Sichuan are the places of origin of cultivated Tartary buckwheat.

The widespread of wild buckwheat species in the southwest of China, the cultivated history of buckwheat, the national history, and the molecular systematical studies, all proved that the southwest of China was not only the distribution center and diversity center of buckwheat, but also the place of origin of the cultivated species (common buckwheat and Tartary buckwheat). These comments are now widely accepted.

Murai and Ohnishi (1995) proposed that after being domesticated in the southwestern part of China, buckwheat was spread through two routes: one from the southwest to the north of China, then further to the Korean peninsula and later to Japan; and the other one from China through Tibet to Bhutan, Nepal, and India, and then spread to Poland through Kashmir. Buckwheat had a long cultivation history in all the East Asian countries and their neighborhoods. In the days of 800 AD, buckwheat was the most important food in Japan. Around 1200 to 1300 AD, buckwheat spread to Europe through Siberia and the south of Russia. Ukraine, Germany, and Slovenia were perhaps among the first countries with cultivated buckwheat in Europe, and then Belgian, French, Italian, and English people began to cultivate buckwheat in the 17th century. After the 17th century, the Dutch brought buckwheat to America. Now, buckwheat is common in many countries which cultivate grain crops.

Germplasm Resources of Buckwheat in the World

After thousands of years of cultivation and spread, cultivated buckwheat can be found in all continents except Antarctica. According to the data provided by FAO in 2014, 25 countries cultivated buckwheat at more than 50 hm²; total buckwheat cultivated acreage reached 2,008,694 hm²; and the total production was 2,056,585 t. Ranked by cultivated acreage, these countries were Russia, China, Ukraine, United States, Kazakhstan, Poland, Japan, Brazil, Lithuania, France, Tanzania, Belgium, Nepal, Latvia, Bhutan, South Korea, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, South Africa, Hungary, Croatia, Georgia, Moldova, and Kyrgyzstan. Russia was the country with the largest cultivated acreage, and the acreage in China was about the same and over 700,000 hm². The second group of countries was Ukraine, United States, Kazakhstan, Poland, Japan, Brazil, Lithuania, and France, acreage reaching about 300,000 hm². Thes...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• List of Contributors
• Foreword by Prof. Ohnishi
• Foreword by Prof. Fan
• Foreword by Prof. Park
• Preface
• Chapter One. Overview of Buckwheat Resources in the World
• Chapter Two. Classification and Nomenclature of Buckwheat Plants
• Chapter Three. Distribution of Cultivated Buckwheat Resources in the World
• Chapter Four. Chromosomes and Chromosome Studies in Buckwheat
• Chapter Five. Description of Cultivated Tartary Buckwheat
• Chapter Six. Description of Cultivated Common Buckwheat
• Chapter Seven. Perennial Self-Incompatible Wild Fagopyrum Species
• Chapter Eight. Perennial Self-Compatible Wild Fagopyrum Species: F. hailuogouense
• Chapter Nine. Annual Self-Incompatible Species
• Chapter Ten. Annual Self-Compatible Species
• Chapter Eleven. Annual Partially Self-Fertile Species
• Chapter Twelve. Useful Genetic Resources Among the Wild Species of Buckwheat
• Chapter Thirteen. Utilization of Wild Buckwheat Species
• Chapter Fourteen. Buckwheat Genetic Resources in Central Europe
• Chapter Fifteen. Existing Variability and Future Prospects of Buckwheat Germplasm in the Indian Himalayan Tract
• Chapter Sixteen. Screening of Common Buckwheat Genetic Resources for Recessive Genes
• Chapter Seventeen. Genetic Polymorphism of Common Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench.), Formed from Evolutionary Mutation Reserves of the Cultivar
• Chapter Eighteen. Cultivation of Fagopyrum tataricum and Fagopyrum esculentum in Order to Obtain Raw Material with High Rutin Content in the Far East of Russia
• Chapter Nineteen. Bioactive Compounds and Their Biofunctional Properties of Different Buckwheat Germplasms for Food Processing
• Chapter Twenty. Rutin Content Assessment of Tartary Buckwheat Germplasm Cultivated in Italy
• Chapter Twenty One. Correlation Between Grain Yield and Rutin Content in Common Buckwheat Germplasm Cultivated in Southern Italy
• Chapter Twenty Two. Buckwheat Resources in the VIR (Russia) Collection: The Photoperiod Response
• Chapter Twenty Three. Main Morphological Types of Cultivated Buckwheat Populations in Russia
• Chapter Twenty Four. Interspecific Crosses Between Fagopyrum cymosum and Other Species Through Embryo Culture Techniques
• Chapter Twenty Five. Cell Cultures of Fagopyrum tataricum as a Source of Biologically Active Phenolic Compounds
• Chapter Twenty Six. Molecular Genetics of Buckwheat and Its Role in Crop Improvement
• Chapter Twenty Seven. Complete Chloroplast Genome Sequence of Buckwheat (Fagopyrum spp.) and Its Application in Genome Evolution and Authentication
• Chapter Twenty Eight. Distribution of Amino Acids in Buckwheat
• Chapter Twenty Nine. Inheritance of Self-Compatibility in a Buckwheat Hybrid
• Chapter Thirty. Analysis of Genetic Diversity and Population Structure of Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum Moench.) Landraces of Korea Using SSR Markers
• Chapter Thirty One. Applications of Plant Tissue Culture and Biotechnology in Buckwheat
• Index