THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL CUCURBITS DATABASE (ECCUDB)

The European Central Cucurbits database is being developed at the COMAV, Spain (http://www.comav.upv.es/eccudb.html) on the initiative of the European Cooperative Programme for Crop Genetic Resources Networks (ECP/GR). The database contains the passport information on 22,815 accessions of 21 cucurbits genus and more than 75 species from thirty three institutions belonging to nineteen European countries. 6187 accessions belong to Citrullus genus, 9169 accessions to Cucumis genus and 6893 accessions to Cucurbita genus, the cultivated species being the best represented in the database. The most important contributors are VIR (Russian Federation), IPK Gatersleben (Germany), “K. Malkov” Institute (Bulgaria), RICP Olomouc (Czech Republic), the Institute for Agrobotany (Hungary), AARI Izmir (Turkey), COMAV (Spain) and CGN (The Netherlands). The database is being developed following the IPGRI/FAO Multicrop Passport Descriptors List. The database will be extended to include characterization and evaluation data. The characterization data are a set of ten to fifteen descriptors, those included in the minimum descriptors list for melons, cucumbers, watermelons and Cucurbita species, agreed by the members of the Cucurbits Working Group (CWG) (http://www.ecpgr.cgiar.org/Workgroups/Cucurbits/Cucurbits. htm). The database allows on-line searches using twenty one of the twenty seven fields included in the database. All the information included in the database can be downloaded. A list of the contributors, a database description and information on cucurbits taxonomy are also provided.