Main Challenges and Actions Needed to Improve Conservation and Sustainable Use of Our Crop Wild Relatives

Engels, Johannes; Thormann, I.

doi:10.3390/plants9080968

Cited by 41 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 70 publications

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“…Several papers in this Special Issue have addressed genetic erosion aspects and provided suggestions and experiences regarding how this erosion can be stemmed for wild and cultivated biodiversity [8], CWR [3,21], wild food plants [19,20], vegetables [25], and forages [17].…”

Section: Genetic Erosionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is crucial to conserve landraces and CWR of crops if we wish to retain sufficient genetic diversity for current and future plant breeding programs, and to develop resilient cultivars that can withstand the multiple biotic and abiotic challenges that are exacerbated by climate change [3,25]. However, public sector breeders in developing countries are still confronted with obstacles such as accessing germplasm across national borders and the lack of appropriate technologies and skills to exploit sets of germplasm accessions composed of landraces and CWR [41].…”

Section: Genetic Resources and Plant Breedingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Crop wild relatives of the secondary and tertiary genepool are mostly found in the wild and are rather difficult to conserve ex situ. These resources are best maintained in situ, in their natural habitat, usually in protected and undisturbed areas where they can continue to evolve [3]. Payment for ecosystem services may be a useful tool to support the in situ conservation of CWR [21].…”

Section: Conservation Of Agrobiodiversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is crucial to conserve CWR and landraces if we wish to retain sufficient genetic diversity for current and future plant breeding programs [3]. This can be achieved through in situ conservation of CWR in their natural habitats or through the continuous use of landraces by farmers on their own farm, and thus maintaining the evolutionary processes that result in adaptation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Attention has also been drawn to the challenges of some crops and crop wild relatives that present specific hurdles for successful, long-term ex situ conservation, such as forage germplasm (grasses, herbaceous legumes, and fodder trees) [17], wild bananas presenting varying levels of seed desiccation tolerance [18], wild food plants [19,20], and crop wild relatives [3]. As crop wild relatives are mostly found in the wild and are rather difficult to be conserved ex situ, the merits of payment for ecosystem services for in situ conservation have been analyzed by Tyak et al [21] for these germplasm resources, which are increasingly coming into the focus of plant breeders, given their broad genetic diversity, harboring many (new) traits of interest to build resistance to diseases and insect pests as well as tolerance to abiotic stresses into resilient modern crop cultivars.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Plant Biodiversity and Genetic Resources Matter!

Ebert

Engels

2020

Plants

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Plant biodiversity is the foundation of our present-day food supply (including functional food and medicine) and offers humankind multiple other benefits in terms of ecosystem functions and resilience to climate change, as well as other perturbations. This Special Issue on ‘Plant Biodiversity and Genetic Resources’ comprises 32 papers covering a wide array of aspects from the definition and identification of hotspots of wild and domesticated plant biodiversity to the specifics of conservation of genetic resources of crop genepools, including breeding and research materials, landraces and crop wild relatives which collectively are the pillars of modern plant breeding, as well as of localized breeding efforts by farmers and farming communities. The integration of genomics and phenomics into germplasm and genebank management enhances the value of crop germplasm conserved ex situ, and is likely to increase its utilization in plant breeding, but presents major challenges for data management and the sharing of this information with potential users. Furthermore, also a better integration of in situ and ex situ conservation efforts will contribute to a more effective conservation and certainly to a more sustainable and efficient utilization. Other aspects such as policy, access and benefit-sharing that directly impact the use of plant biodiversity and genetic resources, as well as balanced nutrition and enhanced resilience of production systems that depend on their increased use, are also being treated. The editorial concludes with six key messages on plant biodiversity, genetic erosion, genetic resources and plant breeding, agricultural diversification, conservation of agrobiodiversity, and the evolving role and importance of genebanks.

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Section: Genetic Erosionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Genetic Resources and Plant Breedingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Conservation Of Agrobiodiversitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Plant Biodiversity and Genetic Resources Matter!

Ebert

Engels

2020

Plants

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Toward the development of a cross‐compatibility framework to enhance the utilization of peanut CWRs

García,

Chalup,

Seijo

2024

Crop Science

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Utilizing valuable genes and alleles from crop wild relatives (CWRs) and transferring them to elite varieties requires a thorough understanding of species cross compatibility and reproductive systems. In this review, we examine interspecific crossing among peanut CWRs, chromosome pairing during meiosis, and pollen viability of Filial 1 hybrids. We analyze each parameter in relation to phylogenetic distances and current taxonomic and genomic classification, aiming to develop a cross‐compatibility scheme for the crop's secondary gene pool. Analysis of passport information and species names from research groups worldwide over the past 60 years revealed diverse frequencies of genome combinations (17) and species (26) used in hybridization assays. However, only eight species accounted for nearly 50% of successful hybridizations. In intragenomic hybrids, bivalent frequency ranged from 9.1 to 10, with pollen viability typically between 30% and 60%. Intergenomic hybrids exhibited bivalent frequency between 4.8 and 8.5, with pollen viability below 10%. Outliers were observed in the various parameters and hybrids were analyzed. Phylogenetic distance presented an inverse relationship with all variables; the correlation was low with crossing success while moderate with bivalent frequency and pollen viability. These findings suggest that differences in DNA sequences are not the sole determinants of interspecific cross‐compatibility, indicating the presence of pre‐ or postzygotic hybridization barriers. This organized information is crucial for establishing a framework to facilitate the rational selection of parents with desired traits and appropriate genome combinations, ultimately aiding in the development of new amphidiploids compatible with peanut varieties.

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Landscape genomics reveals genetic signals of environmental adaptation of African wild eggplants

Omondi,

Lin,

Huang

et al. 2024

Ecology and Evolution

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Crop wild relatives (CWR) provide a valuable resource for improving crops. They possess desirable traits that confer resilience to various environmental stresses. To fully utilize crop wild relatives in breeding and conservation programs, it is important to understand the genetic basis of their adaptation. Landscape genomics associates environments with genomic variation and allows for examining the genetic basis of adaptation. Our study examined the differences in allele frequency of 15,416 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) generated through genotyping by sequencing approach among 153 accessions of 15 wild eggplant relatives and two cultivated species from Africa, the principal hotspot of these wild relatives. We also explored the correlation between these variations and the bioclimatic and soil conditions at their collection sites, providing a comprehensive understanding of the genetic signals of environmental adaptation in African wild eggplant. Redundancy analysis (RDA) results showed that the environmental variation explained 6% while the geographical distances among the collection sites explained 15% of the genomic variation in the eggplant wild relative populations when controlling for population structure. Our findings indicate that even though environmental factors are not the main driver of selection in eggplant wild relatives, it is influential in shaping the genomic variation over time. The selected environmental variables and candidate SNPs effectively revealed grouping patterns according to the environmental characteristics of sampling sites. Using four genotype–environment association methods, we detected 396 candidate SNPs (2.5% of the initial SNPs) associated with eight environmental factors. Some of these SNPs signal genes involved in pathways that help adapt to environmental stresses such as drought, heat, cold, salinity, pests, and diseases. These candidate SNPs will be useful for marker‐assisted improvement and characterizing the germplasm of this crop for developing climate‐resilient eggplant varieties. The study provides a model for applying landscape genomics to other crops' wild relatives.

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Main Challenges and Actions Needed to Improve Conservation and Sustainable Use of Our Crop Wild Relatives

Cited by 41 publications

References 70 publications

Plant Biodiversity and Genetic Resources Matter!

Plant Biodiversity and Genetic Resources Matter!

Toward the development of a cross‐compatibility framework to enhance the utilization of peanut CWRs

Landscape genomics reveals genetic signals of environmental adaptation of African wild eggplants

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