Botany 2011-Colin Khoury_622

622 KHOURY, COLIN*1, CASTAÑEDA
ALVAREZ, NORA PATRICIA 1, VINCENT,
HOLLY2, JARVIS, ANDY1, MAXTED,
NIGEL2, EASTWOOD, RUTH3 and
GUARINO, LUIGI4
Planning for Collecting the Crop Wild
Relatives of the World's Major Crops
The wild plant species related to the world's major
crops are playing an ever increasing role in providing
traits of value to crop improvement programs, as
techniques for utilization improve and as breeders survey
ever wider diversity in order to increase agricultural
production. Adaptation of agriculture to the more variable
and extreme climates of the future is likely to rely
substantially upon the genetic resources found within
crop wild relatives (CWR). Like many plant species,
CWR are exposed to increasing pressures from habitat
modification, and climate change is projected to further
stress populations in many areas. As the representation
of CWR diversity in ex situ conservation (genebanks) is
far from comprehensive, the genetic resources that are
vitally important for crop adaptation are in danger of
being lost, limiting the options available to future agriculture.
It is becoming increasingly feasible to formulate
a global plan for the efficient and effective collection of
CWR diversity due to 1) the taxonomic relationships between
species increasingly clarified, 2) better knowledge
and tools for modelling and mapping the distribution of
plant species through Geographic Information Systems,
and 3) a new International Treaty on Plant Genetic
Resources for Food and Agriculture which facilitates
international collection and conservation efforts. We
document the progress to date on planning for a major
new global initiative for the collection and conservation
of CWR, the results and products of which will be available
to the global community. The genepools of 80 of
the major crops of the world are listed, with the closely
related species given prioritization. Ecogeographic data
for these species, gathered via collaborations with herbaria,
genebanks, and researchers, is utilized to model
species distributions and to expose gaps in the coverage
of these populations in ex situ collections. We discuss
the next steps in planning for collecting trips worldwide,
and invite the research community to collaborate in this
global project through data provision and validation of
results.
1International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Decision
and Policy Analysis Program, Km 17, Recta Cali-Palmira, Apartado
Aéreo 6713, Cali, Colombia2University Of Birmingham, School of
Biosciences, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK3Royal Botanic
Gardens, Kew, Millennium Seed Bank Partnership, Seed Conservation
Department, Wakehurst Place, Ardingly , West Sussex , RH17
6TN, UK4Global Crop Diversity Trust, c/o Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, Viale delle Terme di
Caracalla 1, Rome, 00153, Italy

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Colin
• Khoury