Novel characterization of crop wild relative and landrace resources as a basis for improved crop breeding ! ISSN 1742-3694 (Online) www.pgrsecure.org " Crop wild relative Issue 10 February 2015 PGR Secure – EU Seventh Framework Programme, THEME KBBE.2010.1.1-03, GA 266394 THEME KBBE.2010.1.1-03, GA PGR Secure – EU Seventh Framework Programme, Conserving plant genetic resources for use now and in the future !2 Crop wild relative Issue 10 February 2015 ! ! Contents ! ! Editorial............................................................................................................................................................... 3 ENHANCED GENEPOOL UTILIZATION – Capturing wild relative and landrace diversity for crop improvement S. Dias, S. Kell, M.E. Dulloo, J. Preston, L. Smith, E. Thörn and N. Maxted………………………………………. 5 PGR Secure exhibits crop wild relatives and landraces at NIAB Innovation Farm S. Kell, L. Frese, M. Heinonen, N. Maxted, V. Negri, A. Palmé, L. Smith, S.Ø. Solberg and B. Vosman……….. 9 Phenomics and genomics tools for facilitating brassica crop improvement Editors: B. Vosman, K. Pelgrom, G. Sharma, R. Voorrips, C. Broekgaarden, J. Pritchard, S. May, S. Adobor, Shelagh Kell M. Castellanos-Uribe, M. van Kaauwen, B. Janssen, W. van Workum and B. Ford-Lloyd……………………… 12 Nigel Maxted Successful use of crop wild relatives in breeding: easier said than done ! K. Pelgrom, C. Broekgaarden, R. Voorrips and B. Vosman………………………………………………………… 15 Design and layout: Two predictive characterization approaches to search for target traits in crop wild relatives Shelagh Kell and landraces Hannah Fielder I. Thormann, M. Parra Quijano, J.M. Iriondo, M.L. Rubio Teso, D.T. Endresen, N. Maxted, S. Dias ! and M.E. Dulloo…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..16 ! Europe’s crop wild relative diversity: from conservation planning to conservation action Front cover: S. Kell, B. Ford-Lloyd and N. Maxted…………………………………………………………………………………. 19 Honey bee on Brassica flower Discovering Finnish crop wild relative diversity and gaps in their conservation ! H. Fitzgerald and H. Korpelainen……………………………………………………………………………………… 21 ! In situ conservation of CWR in Spain: present and future Photo: M.L. Rubio Teso, C. Ronquillo Ferrero, A. Nebreda Trejo, M. Parra Quijano, E. Torres Lamas Lorenzo Raggi and J.M. Iriondo Alegría………………………………………………………………………………………………… 24 Italian crop wild relatives and wild harvested plants conservation strategy L. Panella, F. Landucci, D. Donnini, D. Gigante, R. Venanzoni, L. Raggi, R. Torricelli and V. Negri…………… 27 Plant Genetic Resources Diversity Gateway for the conservation and use of crop wild relative and landrace traits S. Dias……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 29 Hordeum vulgare subsp. spontaneum in Turkey: characterization in a laboratory environment F. Gürel, C. Uçarlı, E. Yörük and A. Karagöz…………………………………………………………………………. 31 Enhancing the conservation and use of Medicago genetic resources by means of targeted collection using next-generation sequencing H. Fielder, B. Ford-Lloyd and N. Maxted……………………………………………………………………………… 33 On the sustainable use and conservation of plant genetic resources in Europe !L. Frese, A. Palmé, L. Bülow, G. Neuhaus and C. Kik………………………………………………………………. 34 Correspondence address: Shelagh Kell, School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK !Email: [email protected] Copyright © University of Birmingham 2015. All rights reserved. The University of Birmingham edits and publishes Crop wild relative on behalf of PGR Secure, a collaborative project funded under the EU Seventh Framework Programme, THEME KBBE.2010.1.1-03, Grant Agreement no. 266394 Crop wild relative Issue 10 February 2015 !3 elcome to Issue 10 of Crop countries in Europe have made good wild relative, the final issue to progress in developing national CWR Wbe published under the um- conservation strategies (as reported in brella of the recently concluded PGR Crop wild relative Issue 9), particularly Secure project. In this issue we deliver Editorial since the provision of training and some of the key highlights and results support by the PGR Secure project. of the project, starting with an overview of the highly success- However, selected from the north and south of Europe and ful joint PGR Secure/EUCARPIA conference, ‘ENHANCED with known variation in CWR richness and expected differ- GENEPOOL UTILIZATION – capturing wild relative and lan- ences in the identification of priority CWR, three case studies drace diversity for crop improvement’, which brought together served to test and illustrate the basic national CWR conserva- 140 delegates from 42 European and non-European countries tion strategy planning process. On page 21, Heli Fitzgerald to debate current and future conservation and utilization of (Finnish Museum of Natural History) and Helena Korpelainen CWR and landrace diversity (page (University of Helsinki) summarize 5). In addition to disseminating the the process of preparing the Finland results of the PGR Secure project CWR conservation strategy and and sharing global knowledge on describe five key CWR sites identi- CWR and landrace conservation fied through the application of diver- and use, the conference provided a sity and gap analysis techniques. unique opportunity to showcase Similarly, on page 24 Maria Luisa CWR and landrace populations in Rubio Teso (Universidad Rey Juan the demonstration plots of the host Carlos, Spain) and colleagues de- institute, NIAB Innovation Farm in scribe how they set about developing Cambridge, UK (page 9). a sound evidence-based national ! CWR conservation strategy for Spain The development of novel character- which has one of the largest CWR ization techniques for CWR and floras in Europe and contains landraces was one of the focal areas species of potential major impor- of the PGR Secure project and in tance for food and economic security this issue we present overviews of in the region. In this article they the research undertaken and the key present the concept of the ‘CWR results. On page 12, Ben Vosman species-ecogeographic unit combi- and colleagues from DLO, The nation’ which combines the applica- Netherlands report on the develop- tion of ecogeographic diversity and ment of phenomics and genomics complementarity analysis techniques tools to facilitate brassica crop im- to identify target populations contain- provement, while on page 15, Koen ing potential genetic diversity of Pelgrom and colleagues (DLO) adaptive value. On page 27, Lorenzo Figure 1 Trifolium pratense growing in Færder National summarize the challenges of using park in Vestfold county, Norway (Photo: Jade Phillips) Panella (University of Perugia) and CWR in plant breeding programmes colleagues describe the production but end on a note of optimism that of the CWR inventory of Italy and novel techniques will increasingly overcome the problems and present initial results of gap analysis of priority wild relatives in lead to an increase in the use of CWR for crop improvement. the genus Brassica. Importantly, fieldwork undertaken by the In combination with population occurrence data, comprehen- authors served to highlight the problems and limitations of sive environmental datasets which are widely and freely avail- basing desk-based conservation planning only on existing able can be used to characterize populations based on the occurrence data sourced from herbaria and gene banks, since environmental profile of the sites in which they occur and thus they discovered that a number of recorded populations could narrow down target populations for characterization using con- not be found. ventional (or novel) phenotypic or DNA-based techniques. ! Imke Thormann (Bioversity International) and colleagues (page On page 29, Sónia Dias (Bioversity International) presents a 16) report on predictive characterization approaches tested in major product of the PGR Secure project—the PGR Diversity the PGR Secure project to search for target traits in CWR, as Gateway—which aims to promote and facilitate the use of well as in landraces. CWR and landraces in breeding and crop improvement by ! providing trait and conservation data of potential value to CWR conservation strategy planning was another key objec- breeders and other users of germplasm, as well as to conser- tive of the PGR Secure project. On page 19, Shelagh Kell and vation scientists, policy-makers and other PGRFA stakehold- colleagues (University of Birmingham) highlight the value of ers. Europe’s CWR diversity for food and economic security in the ! region and stress the need for a coherent, regionally coordi- In this issue we also present two guest articles. Filiz Gürel nated policy and the appropriate resources to fund their con- (Istanbul University, Turkey) and colleagues describe the char- servation, characterization and evaluation. As highlighted in acterization of Hordeum vulgare subsp. spontaneum (wild Crop wild relative Issue 9 (editorial), national CWR conserva- barley) accessions for salinity and water stress traits (page tion strategies are essential for the effective implementation of 31). The authors stress the importance of identifying and intro- an integrated CWR conservation strategy in Europe. Many ducing these traits into cultivated barley to mitigate the nega- Crop wild relative Issue 10 February 2015 !4 tion has been ad hoc and opportunistic rather than as a result of deliberate scientific selection. Further, they are independent of each other and therefore do not together constitute the de- sired