Cabo Verde's Poaceae Flora: a Reservoir of Crop Wild Relatives
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fpls-12-630217 January 25, 2021 Time: 16:19 # 1 ORIGINAL RESEARCH published: 01 February 2021 doi: 10.3389/fpls.2021.630217 Cabo Verde’s Poaceae Flora: A Reservoir of Crop Wild Relatives Diversity for Crop Improvement Vanézia Rocha1,2†, Maria C. Duarte2†, Silvia Catarino1,3, Ivani Duarte4 and Maria M. Romeiras1,2* 1 Linking Landscape, Environment, Agriculture and Food (LEAF), Instituto Superior de Agronomia (ISA), Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal, 2 Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes (cE3c), Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal, 3 Forest Research Centre (CEF), Instituto Superior de Agronomia (ISA), Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal, 4 Parque Natural do Monte Gordo, Ministério da Agricultura e Ambiente, Praia, Cabo Verde Edited by: Palak Chaturvedi, Africa is home to important centers of origin and diversity of crop wild relatives (CWR), University of Vienna, Austria including many species adapted to adverse agroecological conditions, namely drought Reviewed by: Arindam Ghatak, and poor soils. Plant genetic resources from Cabo Verde Islands have been poorly University of Vienna, Austria explored for their potential to supplement the genetic pool of cultivated species. In Mehanathan Muthamilarasan, University of Hyderabad, India this paper we identify Cabo Verde’s CWR from the Poaceae family and provide a Puneet Paul, checklist of priority CWR taxa, highlighting those of particular conservation concern University of Nebraska–Lincoln, and the areas which should be the focus of the most intensive conservation efforts United States in these islands. Our results revealed that Cabo Verde archipelago is an important *Correspondence: Maria M. Romeiras center of CWR diversity of West African crop millets, namely fonio (e.g., white fonio, [email protected] Digitaria exilis, and black fonio, Digitaria iburua) and other African millets [e.g., pearl †These authors have contributed millet (Cenchrus americanus = Pennisetum glaucum), teff millet (Eragrostis tef), finger equally to this work and share first authorship millet (Eleusine coracana), barnyard millet (Echinochloa colona), proso millet (Panicum miliaceum), and foxtail millet (Setaria italica)], which represent a diverse group of cereal Specialty section: crops, and important components in agriculture and food security of this country. Also, This article was submitted to Plant Breeding, hotspot areas of diversity for in situ conservation were identified in Cabo Verde, as well as a section of the journal several populations occurring under extreme habitats conditions that are well adapted to Frontiers in Plant Science drylands and poor soils. The evaluation of their potential for new ecologically important Received: 17 November 2020 Accepted: 08 January 2021 adaptive characteristics associated with tolerance to abiotic stresses is discussed. Published: 01 February 2021 The survey of international Germplasm Banks revealed that very few accessions from Citation: Cabo Verde are conserved, contributing to the loss of genetic diversity of plant genetic Rocha V, Duarte MC, Catarino S, resources in this archipelago. Particularly, the diversity of millets and the associated Duarte I and Romeiras MM (2021) Cabo Verde’s Poaceae Flora: A indigenous knowledge are critical for the food security and cultural identity of many poor Reservoir of Crop Wild Relatives farmers in Cabo Verde. Diversity for Crop Improvement. Front. Plant Sci. 12:630217. Keywords: conservation strategies, crop wild relative (CWR), millets, plant genetic resources, grass flora, oceanic doi: 10.3389/fpls.2021.630217 island, prioritization Frontiers in Plant Science| www.frontiersin.org 1 February 2021| Volume 12| Article 630217 fpls-12-630217 January 25, 2021 Time: 16:19 # 2 Rocha et al. Cabo Verde’s Poaceae CWR Flora INTRODUCTION and determine how closely a CWR relates to a crop and how easily they can cross (Maxted et al., 2006; Vincent et al., 2013). Crop Wild Relatives (CWR) are those species growing in The Poaceae family, with the third highest global priority natural habitats that are genetically related to food, fodder among crop wild relatives, accounts for ca. 150 priority and forage crops, medicinal plants, condiments, ornamental CWR distributed over 18 genera [Aegilops (=Amblyopyrum), and forestry species used by humankind (Maxted et al., 2006). Agropyron, Avena, Cenchrus (=Pennisetum), Digitaria, CWR are valuable sources of adaptative traits, contributing Echinochloa, Eleusine, Elymus, Hordeum, Oryza, Panicum, to biotic and abiotic stress tolerance, and thereby allow crop Saccharum, Secale, Setaria, Sorghum, Tripsacum, Triticum, and improvements with a wide range of agronomical and nutritional Zea] which, all except Aegilops and Tripsacum, belong to the benefits (Castañeda-Álvarez et al., 2016). As actual or potential global priority list of 92 CWR genera (Vincent et al., 2013). gene donors, CWR have a wide range of important genetic Among these genera are found most of the species that are wild traits due to their widespread adaptation to different habitats relatives of the main consumption cereal crops (e.g., rice, wheat, and to continuous in situ evolution and because they have maize, and oat), and other Poaceae food crops, such as sugarcane not undergone domestication processes (Vincent et al., 2013; and sorghum, that substantially contribute to the human dietary Zhang et al., 2017). energy (Vincent et al., 2013; Allen et al., 2019). Furthermore, in Considering an increasing population, the conservation the semi-arid tropical regions of Africa and Asia, millets (small of CWR diversity to ensure food security is of paramount grain crops) are important sources of energy and protein for importance and has been widely recognized by several world millions of persons living in developing countries (Amadou organizations, namely the Food and Agriculture Organization et al., 2013). The millets’ group comprises many different (Vincent et al., 2013). The Global Crop Diversity Trust species, with pearl millet (Cenchrus americanus = Pennisetum has proposed projects like the “Global initiative to collect, glaucum), foxtail millet (Setaria italica), proso millet (Panicum conserve, and use crop wild relatives” (Dempewolf et al., miliaceum), and finger millet (Eleusine coracana) being the most 2014), and the 2030 agenda of Sustainable Development important ones (Dwivedi et al., 2012; Amadou et al., 2013; Tadele, Goals (SDGs), implemented in 2015 by the United Nations, 2016). The maintenance of African millet diversity depends on advocates the promotion of sustainable agriculture (SDGs2) by agricultural, food and livelihood dynamics at the farmer level, reinforcing resilience and adaptation to climate change (SDGs13) since every community holds local cultivars to address their and preventing desertification and protection of biodiversity agroecological conditions, farming practices, and food needs (domesticated and wild species) (SDGs15) (Sonesson et al., 2016). (IPGRI, 2002). Small millets of the Poaceae family have been Like other Plant Genetic Resources, CWR are mainly threatened commonly mentioned as ‘smart foods’ or ‘nutri-cereals’ because by the impacts of anthropogenic activities, such as habitat they are more efficient in water and nitrogen use than major destruction, pollution and urbanization, and even competition by cereals like rice or maize (Muthamilarasan and Prasad, 2021). invasive species, but climate changes seem to be a particularly They grow in a diverse range of environmental conditions, as serious problem for this group (Ford-Lloyd et al., 2011; van they are more tolerant to diseases, pests, and abiotic stresses Treuren et al., 2017; Teso et al., 2018; Allen et al., 2019). (Vetriventhan et al., 2020). Some CWR may be passively conserved in situ due to strategies To secure the long-term conservation, worldwide genebanks targeting other species, namely in protected areas, but specific hold accessions of cultivated and wild germplasm of small conservation linked to CWR remains necessary. millets, but only of the most important species, as is the case of The need for CWR conservation has been widely discussed finger millet, foxtail millet, and proso millet (Muthamilarasan (Heywood et al., 2007; Maxted et al., 2013) and the CWR and Prasad, 2021). Recently, Varshney et al.(2017) report the inventory seems to be a crucial step to identify the conservation whole-genome sequence of pearl millet, providing an important requirements (Zhang et al., 2017; Teso et al., 2018). Approaches resource to improve agronomic traits in arid environments and to protect CWR diversity can involve an individual, national, accelerate millets crop improvement. regional or global level planning, with prioritization criteria Millets are well adapted to adverse climatic conditions (limited that should ensure a successful conservation strategy with rainfall) and are mainly cultivated in marginal agricultural areas limited resources for implementation (Allen et al., 2019). (Tadele, 2016), playing a major role in rural agriculture of The prioritization criteria can be adjusted according to the West African countries, and particularly in the tropical dry conservation strategy to be adopted, however, the main ones are: islands of Cabo Verde (Teixeira and Barbosa, 1958). Although (i) economic value of the related crop, mainly its importance its agriculture is limited by a set of natural constraints (e.g., for human food and livestock supply; (ii) genetic potential as persistent drought