Societal Impact Statement Crop wild relatives (CWR) are plant taxa closely related to crops and are a source of high genetic diversity that can help adapt crops to the impacts of global change, particularly to meet increasing consumer demand in the face of the climate crisis. CWR provide vital ecosystem services and are increasingly important for food and nutrition security and sustainable and resilient agriculture. They therefore are of major biological, social, cultural and economic importance. Assessing the extinction risk of CWR is essential to prioritise in situ and ex situ conservation strategies in Mesoamerica to guarantee the long‐term survival and availability of these resources for present and future generations worldwide. Summary Ensuring food security is one of the world's most critical issues as agricultural systems are already being impacted by global change. Crop wild relatives (CWR)—wild plants related to crops—possess genetic variability that can help adapt agriculture to a changing environment and sustainably increase crop yields to meet the food security challenge. Here we report the results of an extinction risk assessment of 224 wild relatives of some of the world's most important crops (i.e. chilli pepper, maize, common bean, avocado, cotton, potato, squash, vanilla and husk tomato) in Mesoamerica—an area of global significance as a centre of crop origin, domestication and of high CWR diversity. We show that 35% of the selected CWR taxa are threatened with extinction according to The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List demonstrates that these valuable genetic resources are under high anthropogenic threat. The dominant threat processes are land use change for agriculture and farming, invasive and other problematic species (e.g. pests, genetically modified organisms) and use of biological resources, including overcollection and logging. The most significant drivers of extinction relate to smallholder agriculture—given its high incidence and ongoing shifts from traditional agriculture to modern practices (e.g. use of herbicides)—smallholder ranching and housing and urban development and introduced genetic material. There is an urgent need to increase knowledge and research around different aspects of CWR. Policies that support in situ and ex situ conservation of CWR and promote sustainable agriculture are pivotal to secure these resources for the benefit of current and future generations.

From the hexane extracts of Senecio sinuatus roots, the new 3beta-angeloyloxy-6beta-hydroxyeremophil-1(10)-en-8beta,12-olide (3), along with the known compounds 3beta-angeloyloxy-6beta-hydroxyeremophil-1(10)-ene (1), 3beta-senecioyloxy-6beta-hydroxyeremophil-1(10)-ene (2), and 3beta-angeloyloxy-6beta,8alpha-dihydroxyeremophil-1(10)-en-8beta,12-olide (4), were isolated. Complete 1H and 13C NMR chemical shift assignments of 1-4 were achieved using one- and two-dimensional NMR techniques, including gHMQC and gHMBC experiments. A Monte Carlo search, followed by B3LYP/6-31G*DFT calculation, provided the theoretical conformations of the eremophilane rings, which were in agreement with results derived from 1H-1H NMR coupling constant analysis, and confirmed by NOESY experiments.

Crop wild relatives (CWR) intra- and interspecific diversity is essential for crop breeding and food security. However, intraspecific genetic diversity, which is central given the idiosyncratic threats to species in landscapes, is usually not considered in planning frameworks. Here, we introduce an approach to develop proxies of genetic differentiation to identify conservation areas, applying systematic conservation planning tools that produce hierarchical prioritizations of the landscape. It accounts for: (i) evolutionary processes, including historical and environmental drivers of genetic diversity, and (ii) threat processes, considering taxa-specific tolerance to human-modified habitats, and their extinction risk status. Our analyses can be used as inputs for developing national action plans for the conservation and use of CWR. Our results also inform public policy to mitigate threat processes to CWR (like crops living modified organisms or agriculture subsidies), and could advise future research (e.g. for potential germplasm collecting). Although we focus on Mesoamerican CWR within Mexico, our methodology offers opportunities to effectively guide conservation and monitoring strategies to safeguard the evolutionary resilience of any taxa, including in regions of complex evolutionary histories and mosaic landscapes.

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El conocimiento sobre la flora y la dinámica de la vegetación en los pastizales templados de México es hasta la fecha escaso. Con el fin de paliar esta deficiencia, en este estudio se evaluó la composición florística, diversidad y estructura de un pastizal templado del centro de México. Se registraron 118 especies, 93 géneros y 40 familias. Las familias mejor representadas a nivel genérico y específico son: Poaceae, Asteraceae, Fabaceae y Orchidaceae, esta última con una nueva especie aún no descrita perteneciente al género Cyclopogon. El estrato herbáceo del pastizal es complejo y cubre 98% de la superficie. Se encontró un porcentaje elevado de taxa nativos (20.50) y un índice de diversidad (Simpson y Shannon = 3.36) relativamente alto. Muhlenbergia phalaroides fue la especie dominante y a ella correspondió el mayor valor de importancia. Los resultados sugieren que estos pastizales representan un reservorio considerable de especies relevantes para la conservación biológica, a pesar de estar sometidos a disturbios constantes. Derechos Reservados © 2016 Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Instituto de Biología. Este es un artículo de acceso abierto distribuido bajo los términos de la Licencia Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.