Modeling of crop wild relative species identifies areas globally for in situ conservation.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Vincent H
PROVIDER: S-EPMC6478866 | biostudies-literature | 2019
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Modeling of crop wild relative species identifies areas globally for in situ conservation.
Vincent Holly H Amri Ahmed A Castañeda-Álvarez Nora P NP Dempewolf Hannes H Dulloo Ehsan E Guarino Luigi L Hole David D Mba Chikelu C Toledo Alvaro A Maxted Nigel N
Communications biology 20190423
The impact of climate change is causing challenges for the agricultural production and food systems. More nutritious and climate resilient crop varieties are required, but lack of available and accessible trait diversity is limiting crop improvement. Crop wild relatives (CWR) are the wild cousins of cultivated crops and a vast resource of genetic diversity for breeding new, higher yielding, climate change tolerant crop varieties, but they are under-conserved (particularly in situ), largely unava ...[more]
Similar Datasets
Project description:Climate change is likely to be one of the most important factors affecting our future food security. To mitigate negative impacts, we will require our crops to be more genetically diverse. Such diversity is available in crop wild relatives (CWRs), the wild taxa relatively closely related to crops and from which diverse traits can be transferred to the crop. Conservation of such genetic resources resides within the nation where they are found; therefore, national-level conservation recommendations are fundamental to global food security. We investigate the potential impact of climate change on CWR richness in Norway. The consequences of a 1.5 and 3.0 °C temperature rise were studied for the years 2030, 2050, 2070, 2080 and then compared to the present climate. The results indicate a pattern of shifting CWR richness from the south to the north, with increases in taxa turnover and in the numbers of threatened taxa. Recommendations for in situ and ex situ conservation actions over the short and long term for the priority CWRs in Norway are presented. The methods and recommendations developed here can be applied within other nations and at regional and global levels to improve the effectiveness of conservation actions and help ensure global food security.
| S-EPMC5595738 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundCrop wild relatives are wild species that are closely related to crops. They are valuable as potential gene donors for crop improvement and may help to ensure food security for the future. However, they are becoming increasingly threatened in the wild and are inadequately conserved, both in situ and ex situ. Information about the conservation status and utilisation potential of crop wild relatives is diverse and dispersed, and no single agreed standard exists for representing such information; yet, this information is vital to ensure these species are effectively conserved and utilised. The European Community-funded project, European Crop Wild Relative Diversity Assessment and Conservation Forum, determined the minimum information requirements for the conservation and utilisation of crop wild relatives and created the Crop Wild Relative Information System, incorporating an eXtensible Markup Language (XML) schema to aid data sharing and exchange.ResultsCrop Wild Relative Markup Language (CWRML) was developed to represent the data necessary for crop wild relative conservation and ensure that they can be effectively utilised for crop improvement. The schema partitions data into taxon-, site-, and population-specific elements, to allow for integration with other more general conservation biology schemata which may emerge as accepted standards in the future. These elements are composed of sub-elements, which are structured in order to facilitate the use of the schema in a variety of crop wild relative conservation and use contexts. Pre-existing standards for data representation in conservation biology were reviewed and incorporated into the schema as restrictions on element data contents, where appropriate.ConclusionCWRML provides a flexible data communication format for representing in situ and ex situ conservation status of individual taxa as well as their utilisation potential. The development of the schema highlights a number of instances where additional standards-development may be valuable, particularly with regard to the representation of population-specific data and utilisation potential. As crop wild relatives are intrinsically no different to other wild plant species there is potential for the inclusion of CWRML data elements in the emerging standards for representation of biodiversity data.
| S-EPMC2375123 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Maintaining genetic integrity is essential for in situ and ex situ conservation of crop wild relative (CWR) species. However, introgression of crop alleles into CWR species/populations may change their genetic structure and diversity, resulting in more invasive weeds or, in contrast, the extinction of endangered populations. To determine crop-wild introgression and its consequences, we examined the genetic structure and diversity of six wild rice (Oryza rufipogon) populations under in situ conservation in China. Thirty-four simple sequence repeat (SSR) and 34 insertion/deletion markers were used to genotype the wild rice populations and two sets of rice cultivars (O. sativa), corresponding to the two types of molecular markers. Shared alleles and STRUCTURE analyses suggested a variable level of crop-wild introgression and admixture. Principal coordinates and cluster analyses indicated differentiation of wild rice populations, which was associated with the spatial distances to cultivated rice fields. The level of overall genetic diversity was comparable between wild rice populations and rice cultivars, but a great number of wild-specific alleles was detected in the wild populations. We conclude based on the results that crop-wild introgression can considerably alter the pattern of genetic structure and relationships of CWR populations. Appropriate measures should be taken for effective in situ conservation of CWR species under the scenario of crop-wild introgression.
| S-EPMC5751058 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Humans require resilient, rapidly renewable and sustainable supplies of food and many other plant-derived supplies. However, the combined effects of climate change and population growth compromise the provision of these supplies particularly in respect to global food security. Crop wild relatives (CWR) contain higher genetic diversity than crops and harbour traits that can improve crop resilience and yield through plant breeding. However, in common with most countries, CWR are poorly conserved in England. There is currently no provision for long-term CWR conservation in situ, and comprehensive ex situ collection and storage of CWR is also lacking. However, there is a commitment to achieve their conservation in England's Biodiversity Strategy and the UK has international commitments to do so as part of the Global Plant Conservation Strategy. Here, we identify a series of measures that could enhance the conservation of English CWR, thereby supporting the achievement of these national and international objectives. We provide an inventory of 148 priority English CWR, highlight hotspots of CWR diversity in sites including The Lizard Peninsula, the Dorset coast and Cambridgeshire and suggest appropriate sites for the establishment of a complementary network of genetic reserves. We also identify individual in situ and ex situ priorities for each English CWR. Based on these analyses, we make recommendations whose implementation could provide effective, long-term conservation of English CWR whilst facilitating their use in crop improvement.
| S-EPMC4481409 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The COVID-19 pandemic has had an enormous impact on almost all aspects of human society and endeavor; the natural world and its conservation have not been spared. Through a process of expert consultation, we identified and categorized, into 19 themes and 70 subthemes, the ways in which biodiversity and its conservation have been or could be affected by the pandemic globally. Nearly 60% of the effects have been broadly negative. Subsequently, we created a compendium of all themes and subthemes, each with explanatory text, and in August 2020 a diverse group of experienced conservationists with expertise from across sectors and geographies assessed each subtheme for its likely impact on biodiversity conservation globally. The 9 subthemes ranked highest all have a negative impact. These were, in rank order, governments sidelining the environment during their economic recovery, reduced wildlife-based tourism income, increased habitat destruction, reduced government funding, increased plastic and other solid waste pollution, weakening of nature-friendly regulations and their enforcement, increased illegal harvest of wild animals, reduced philanthropy, and threats to survival of conservation organizations. In combination, these impacts present a worrying future of increased threats to biodiversity conservation but reduced capacity to counter them. The highest ranking positive impact, at 10, was the beneficial impact of wildlife-trade restrictions. More optimistically, among impacts ranked 11-20, 6 were positive and 4 were negative. We hope our assessment will draw attention to the impacts of the pandemic and, thus, improve the conservation community's ability to respond to such threats in the future.
| S-EPMC8239704 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Five species of wild Oryza (O. nivara, O. rufipogon, O. eichengeri, O. rhizomatis and O. granulata), including the endemic species O. rhizomatis, have been recorded in Sri Lanka. These species are facing continuous decline in their populations due to natural and anthropogenic processes, with habitat loss being the main threat. This study aimed to provide information on the distribution, the current status of ex situ and in situ conservation, and to identify high-priority species and sites of wild rice in Sri Lanka, in order to improve the effectiveness of conservation efforts. Occurrence records of Sri Lankan wild rice species were collected from literature, gene banks, and field surveys. The distribution of these species was mapped, and areas with high species richness were identified. A gap analysis was conducted to determine the high-priority areas and species for ex situ and in situ conservation. It was found that about 23% of the wild rice populations in Sri Lanka were within protected areas, and by expanding these protected areas by 1 km, an additional 22% of the populations located on the border of these areas could be effectively conserved. Our analysis also revealed that 62% of Sri Lankan wild rice populations were not represented in gene banks. The species-rich areas were found to be in only two districts (Polonnaruwa and Monaragala), and less than 50% of these areas were within protected areas. Based on these findings, O. rhizomatis, O. eichengeri, and O. rufipogon were identified as high-priority species for in situ conservation. Ex situ collections were also deemed necessary for O. granulata and O. rhizomatis to ensure diversity representation in gene banks.
| S-EPMC10255471 | biostudies-literature
Project description: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.
| S-EPMC9587227 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Crop wild relatives (CWR) are an important agricultural resource as they contain genetic traits not found in cultivated species due to localized adaptation to unique environmental and climatic conditions. Phylogenetic diversity (PD) measures the evolutionary relationship of species using the tree of life. Our knowledge of CWR PD in neotropical regions is in its infancy. We analysed the distribution of CWR PD across Colombia and assessed its conservation status. The areas with the largest concentration of PD were identified as being in the northern part of the central and western Andean mountain ranges and the Pacific region. These centres of high PD were comprised of predominantly short and closely related branches, mostly of species of wild tomatoes and black peppers. In contrast, the CWR PD in the lowland ecosystems of the Amazon and Orinoquia regions had deeply diverging clades predominantly represented by long and distantly related branches (i.e. tuberous roots, grains and cacao). We categorized 50 (52.6%) of the CWR species as 'high priority', 36 as 'medium priority' and nine as 'low priority' for further ex-situ and in situ conservation actions. New areas of high PD and richness with large ex-situ gap collections were identified mainly in the northern part of the Andes of Colombia. We found that 56% of the grid cells with the highest PD values were unprotected. These baseline data could be used to create a comprehensive national strategy of CWR conservation in Colombia.
| S-EPMC8591330 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Legumes included in corn-based crop rotation systems provide a variety of benefits to the subsequent crops and potentially to the environment. This review aims to synthesize available data from the literature on legume N credits and the effects of crop rotations on water quality, as well as to analyze the cost benefits associated with different legume-corn rotation systems. We found that there was much variation in reported values for legume N credits to subsequent corn crops, from both empirical results and recommendations made by U.S. land grant universities. But despite inherent complexity, accounting for this contribution is critical when estimating optimal N fertilizer application rates as part of nutrient management. Results from research on the influence of crop rotations on water quality show that including legumes in corn-based rotation systems generally decreases nitrate-N concentrations in subsurface drainage discharge. Our cost analysis showed that incorporating legumes in cropping systems reduced N fertilizer and pesticide costs compared to conventional cropping systems, i.e., continuous corn and corn-soybean rotations, but extended rotations, such as corn-soybean-alfalfa-alfalfa-alfalfa, are not as profitable as conventional systems in the U.S. Midwest. In comparing continuous corn and corn-soybean rotations, although their impacts on water quality are not significantly different when using overall means from the literature data, corn-soybean rotations are more profitable than continuous corn. When using data from papers that directly compared the two, we found that switching from continuous corn to corn-soybean can provide a benefit of $5 per kg N loss reduction. The cost analysis methods used could be tailored to any location or management scenario with appropriate inputs and serve as a useful tool for assessing cost benefits for other agricultural conservation practices. Legume-corn crop rotations have the potential to be an effective conservation practice with the ultimate goal of improving water quality, and, with further research, these rotations could be made even more effective by integrating them into a multi-practice system.
| S-EPMC9359213 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Conservation of crop wild relatives is critical for plant breeding and food security. The lack of clarity on the genetic factors that lead to endangered status or extinction create difficulties when attempting to develop concrete recommendations for conserving a citrus wild relative: the wild relatives of crops. Here, we evaluate the conservation of wild kumquat (Fortunella hindsii) using genomic, geographical, environmental, and phenotypic data, and forward simulations. Genome resequencing data from 73 accessions from the Fortunella genus were combined to investigate population structure, demography, inbreeding, introgression, and genetic load. Population structure was correlated with reproductive type (i.e., sexual and apomictic) and with a significant differentiation within the sexually reproducing population. The effective population size for one of the sexually reproducing subpopulations has recently declined to ~1,000, resulting in high levels of inbreeding. In particular, we found that 58% of the ecological niche overlapped between wild and cultivated populations and that there was extensive introgression into wild samples from cultivated populations. Interestingly, the introgression pattern and accumulation of genetic load may be influenced by the type of reproduction. In wild apomictic samples, the introgressed regions were primarily heterozygous, and genome-wide deleterious variants were hidden in the heterozygous state. In contrast, wild sexually reproducing samples carried a higher recessive deleterious burden. Furthermore, we also found that sexually reproducing samples were self-incompatible, which prevented the reduction of genetic diversity by selfing. Our population genomic analyses provide specific recommendations for distinct reproductive types and monitoring during conservation. This study highlights the genomic landscape of a wild relative of citrus and provides recommendations for the conservation of crop wild relatives.
| S-EPMC10321653 | biostudies-literature