The Role of Genetic Resources in Breeding for Climate Change: The Case of Public Breeding Programmes in Eighteen Developing Countries

Abstract

The role of plant breeding in adapting crops to climate changes that affect food production in developing countries is recognized as extremely important and urgent, alongside other agronomic, socio-economic and policy adaptation pathways. To enhance plant breeders’ capacity to respond to climate challenges, it is acknowledged that they need to be able to access and use as much genetic diversity as they can get. Through an analysis of data from a global survey, we explore if and how public breeders in selected developing countries are responding to climate challenges through a renewed or innovative use of plant genetic resources, particularly in terms of types of material incorporated into their breeding work as well as sources of such germplasm. It also looks at the possible limitations breeders encounter in their efforts towards exploring diversity for adaptation. Breeders are clearly considering climate challenges. In general, their efforts are aimed at intensifying their breeding work on traits that they were already working on before climate change was so widely discussed. Similarly, the kinds of germplasm they use, and the sources from which they obtain it, do not appear to have changed significantly over the course of recent years. The main challenges breeders faced in accessing germplasm were linked to administrative/legal factors, particularly related to obtaining genetic resources across national borders. They also underscore technical challenges such as a lack of appropriate technologies to exploit germplasm sets such as crop wild relatives and landraces. Addressing these limitations will be crucial to fully enhance the role of public sector breeders in helping to adapt vulnerable agricultural systems to the challenges of climate change.

Genetic Diversity and Structure Analysis of a Worldwide Collection of Faba bean (Vicia faba) Genotypes using ISSR Markers

“…These results could be attributed to the collection of different species from different geographical locations (continents) worldwide and thus had significant genetic diversity. Geographical barriers between different countries lead to separation between germplasm and thus higher genetic diversity observed in germplasm collected from different countries/continents (Duc et al 2010;Galluzzi et al 2020). The results of the ISSR marker were further confirmed by AMOVA analysis.…”

“…Development of high yield or tolerant crops depends mainly upon the availability of plant genetic resources that could be utilized in different breeding programs aiming to produce plats with superior characteristics (Yadav et al 2017). Providing access to a wide range of genetic diversity significantly enhances plant breeders' capacity to develop new elite cultivars (Galluzzi et al 2020). However, genetic diversity is continuously diminished because of either natural process including domestication and dispersal or breeding programs that aims to selection of specific characteristics (Louwaars 2018).…”

Plant Biodiversity and Genetic Resources Matter!

“…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]. It has been proposed that the commonly used estimated breeding value (EBV) of a parent in a cross could be expanded from individuals to species and populations, and in this case go beyond mere heritability values to additionally include crossing considerations (e.g., ploidy, mating system), evolutionary factors (e.g., phylogenetic relationship), and ecological factors (e.g., environment the species is thriving in) [8].…”

“…Examples of conservation activities that impact on the use of the genetic resources that have been covered in this Special Issue include the following: easy access to genetic resources increases the capacity of breeders to respond to climate change and the availability of appropriate technologies [41]; access to traditional knowledge on the use of wild plant species [27]; a systematic association-mapping of wheat varieties with SNP markers was successfully used to associate adult plant stripe rust resistance with specific rust races, and results can be used in marker-assisted selection [29]; the analysis of a local genetic panel of manna ash with a continental dataset allowed conclusions on the presence of a possible glacial refuge, and thus facilitates the collecting and use of more genetic diversity [38]; the systematic characterization of ancient grape germplasm in Cyprus allowed the discovery of so far unnoticed genetic diversity [35]; literature searches and conducting field surveys allowed the identification of unknown wild food plants in Kenya [20]; fact sheets promoted the use of traditional food plants in the South Pacific [26]; the exploitation of the local genetic diversity of traditional pea landraces in Greece is fundamental for conservation practices and crop improvement through breeding strategies [32]; the evaluation of maize landrace accessions under heat and drought stresses resulted in invaluable sources of genes/alleles for adaptation breeding [30]; the review of recent efforts that build evidence of the importance of wild food plants in selected countries, while providing examples of cross-sectoral cooperation and multi-stakeholder approaches, contributes to enhancing their sustainable use [19]; the advances in conventional and molecular breeding for the drought tolerance of conventional staple crops, and the introduction of drought-tolerant neglected and underutilized species into existing production systems has the potential to enhance the resilience of agricultural production under conditions of water scarcity [40]; the utilization of advanced phenotyping tools, coupled with high-throughput genotyping, will accelerate the use of genetic resources and fast-track the development of more resilient food crops for the future [24]; and genomics-assisted breeding is increasingly facilitating the introgression of favorable genes and quantitative trait loci from wild species into cultigens, and will lead to a wider use of crop wild relatives in the development of resilient cultivars [25].…”

“…Rosero et al [40] advocate a dual strategy of breeding for drought tolerance in staple crops and introducing drought-tolerant, underutilized species in cropping systems to enhance their resilience to drought. In the context of public breeding programs in 18 developing countries, Galluzzi et al [41] analyze the specific role of genetic resources in breeding for climate change. The importance of vegetable genetic resources for nutrition security and vegetable breeding is highlighted in a paper by Ebert [25].…”