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		The V.A.S.T lab Variation and Abiotic Stress Tolerance
	Projects      Publications      People      Arabidopsis RILs      New collections      MSAT Database      Useful Links	For QTL and association mapping projects in the Arabidopsis model, we will need more variation soon. We are interested in the following regions where we would like to collect and describe new accessions in the coming years : Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in summer 2004, see below; West of China in Spring 2005), Mediterranean regions (North Africa, Turkey, Lebanon in Spring 2005, see below...). We want to collect in regions were human disturbance is as low as possible and in natural environments when possible, far from the main roads. Also, our goal is not only to collect seeds, but seeds together with a full range of precise environmental and ecological informations, like GPS coordinates, altitude, description of the immediate environment (other flora, exposition, light, soil sampling and analysis, pictures...) and description of the Arabidopsis thaliana population (size, stage, flowering, fitness, homogeneity, pictures...).

In June and July 2004, I visited Kyrgyzstan and, to a lesser extent, Tajikistan, with the objectives of collecting and describing new Arabidopsis thaliana populations from the mountaineous regions of Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan was a good candidate because there had been no accessions collected from this country before. My goal in going to Tajikistan was to try and find the place where Shahdara was collected 20 years ago by Dr Khurmatov in the 'Shokhdara' valley, in the South part of the Pamir mountains.

Here is a map of Asia where Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are highlighted in red :

There is a general trend (supported by several studies) to consider that Central Asian accessions are generally quite distant (genetically) from their European cousins. We need more samples from these regions to really know the relationships between Arabidopsis accessions. Also, Central Asian mountains offer the unique opportunity to collect Arabidopsis from relatively undisturbed moutaineous environments. With the help of Almaz Oskonbaev from the State Forestry Service in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan) and Nazgul Kenjebaeva, a botanist from the National Academy of Science in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan), I prospected most of Kyrgyzstan regions in 5 weeks between June and July 2004.

On the following map, green areas represent prospected regions (June & July 2004) and the red numbers correspond to the places where Arabidopsis thaliana populations have been found and collected (see their description below).

Below, is a summary of the description of the 5 new populations I have been collecting in Kyrgyzstan and the one population from Tajikistan. For each population, 3 pictures present the general environment, the close environment and the plants. Red arrows indicate the exact position of the Arabidopsis population. Much more detailed information (such as access 'road', surrounding flora, human presence, population description, etc...) for each population is found in this Excel file.

This prospecting has been funded by the CEDRE Lebanese-French cooperation program n° 04 E F22 / L12. Oumaya Bouchabke, Françoise Budar and Jihad Noun have participated to the prospecting.

Lebanon is sitting on the Fertile Crescent, which has been the origin of diversification for diverse annual species, thanks to the favorable climate conditions. It has got varied geographical settings and altitudes on a limited area, which allowed us to prospect in the whole country in one week. Numerous sites are still not disturbed by human activities. The natural A. thaliana populations collected in 2005 in Lebanon have been found only on territorial division, where Mouterde S.J. described the species in his flora (1966-1970).

Here is a map of the Middle East pointing Lebanon in red.

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The map of Lebanon underneath is showing the prospected sites between April 4^th, 2005 and April 8^th, 2005, and the sites where we have found Arabidopsis thaliana populations.

Hereafter, you can find a short description of theses new populations as well as pictures showing the natural environment, close-up on the plants and finally the SSD (Single Seed Descent) lines in second generation extracted from the natural population. Those SSD lines are currently genotyped. Access road is described as an additional information in the following Excel file