Under a Memorandum of Understanding, the National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences (Japan) and the National Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute (NAFRI), Lao People's Democratic Republic (Laos) have collaborated since 2006 to survey plant genetic resources in Laos. The main objective of the current survey was to collect accessions of eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) and related crop species from the northern provinces of Oudomxai and Phongsaly in Laos. From 9th to 25th November 2015, we collected a total of 124 accessions, including 101 S. melongena accessions and 23 accessions of other Solanum spp. We discovered a wide diversity of eggplant landraces in northern Laos, with variation in fruit shape (elongated, round, and flattened), length (21-600 mm), and color (purple, green, and white), and spineless landraces were popular. Seeds of these genetic resources will be produced by self-pollination, and NAFRI staff will evaluate the characteristics of the materials during the next season. The seeds produced at NAFRI will be shared between Laos and Japan. We plan to evaluate morphological characteristics and resistance of the accessions to Verticillium wilt, bacterial wilt, Fusarium wilt, and nematodes in Japan.

本報告は，独立行政法人農業生物資源研究所とラオス農林省との間で2006年に締結した共同研究協定（MOU）に基づいて行われたラオス国における2015年の野菜遺伝資源の調査報告である．調査は，2015年11月9～25日にかけ，ナスを主な調査対象とした．今回は，ラオス国北部地域であるウドムサイ県およびポンサリー県を調査した．ナス栽培種Solanum melongena を101点およびナス近縁種を23点の合計124点の種子サンプルを収集した．当該地域におけるナスの多様性は高く，果形や果色に広い変異が観察され，とげなし性の在来種が多かったことは興味深い．これら遺伝資源の種子は自殖によって増殖し，ラオス園芸研究センター（HRC）で特性調査が行われる予定である．将来的には，種子は日本とラオスの両国が保有し，日本でも土壌伝染性病害虫への抵抗性を含む諸特性を調査する予定である．