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Crop Wild Relatives and Their Potential for Crop Improvement by Madeline Fisher

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Crop Wild Relatives and Their Potential for Crop Improvement by Madeline Fisher Science Crop Wild Relatives and their Potential for Crop Improvement by Madeline Fisher 4 CSA News May 2012 by Madeline Fisher In the late 1800s, a botanist named N.E. Hansen brought a Siberian alfalfa species to the United States, hoping its capacity to survive extreme cold their ten- dency to and drought would benefit farmers Then something happened that be over- in what he reportedly called “my Hansen likely didn’t expect. Yellow- looked American Siberia”—the northern flowered alfalfa escaped cultivation in spite Great Plains. And as he envisioned, and went wild, adapting itself to of this farmers did sow the unusual, yellow- the Plains environment and piquing (exceptions like flowered alfalfa into their fields, while people’s interest once again. When a yellow-flowered plant breeders used the new species to South Dakota rancher reported in 1997 alfalfa aside), both by breed winter-hardiness into cultivat- that wild populations were boosting agriculturalists, who attend mainly to ed, blue-flowered alfalfa. forage production and fattening his cultivated plants, and conservation- cattle, rangeland scientists started ists, who typically focus on the rarest, exploring the plant’s ability to restore most fragile wild species. degraded pasturelands. Breeders also The lack of attention has put gave yellow-flowered alfalfa a second crop wild relatives, or CWR, in a look, using it to develop a new variety precarious position, says ASA and adapted to the region’s cold, dry CSSA member Stephanie Greene, a rangelands. plant geneticist with the USDA-ARS Meanwhile, wild populations had in Prosser, WA and the U.S. National settled in the Grand River National Plant Germplasm System, the coun- Grassland in northwestern South try’s primary steward of seed and Dakota, and their tendency to displace other crop genetic material. Twenty other species had preserve staff won- percent of all wild plants are now dering what to do. Should they leave threatened with extinction, accord- yellow-flowered alfalfa as part of the ing to recent estimates, and that’s landscape? Or should they control it before the potential impacts of climate to protect native communities? Either change are factored in. Yet, “as the way, the plant hardly seems to need world moves forward with all these protection itself. initiatives to conserve biodiversity,” Or does it? That’s the question Greene says, “it’s recognized that crop swirling around “crop wild relatives”: wild relatives have been left behind.” species that are genetically related to She now leads an effort to tally domesticated crops, forages, me- the CWR living in the United States, dicinal herbs, and other useful plants identify which are most important to but are undomesticated themselves. global and American agriculture, and Some, like yellow-flowered alfalfa, are develop a nationwide strategy for common and weedy. Others, such as protecting them both in gene banks the walnut relative, Juglans hindsii, are and in the wild. But conserving CWR Left: Photo by Andreas Melikyan & Armen Dan- globally imperiled. What they share is only the first step. The real goal is to ielyan. Inset: Copyright by Simone Cottrell, The is their importance to agriculture and get their diverse stock of genetic ma- iStockphoto/Lya_Cattel Royal Botanic Garden, Sydney. May 2012 CSA News 5 Science Why aren’t these plants the poster children [for plant conservation]? We know they have value.” terial, or germplasm, into the hands of always surprises me: Why aren’t these and 1930s, Vavilov advanced the idea plant breeders, especially those seek- plants the poster children [for plant that wild species could help improve ing to adapt crops to the increased conservation]?” she says. “We know wheat and other crops. He also identi- drought, greater disease pressure, and they have value.” fied what are called the Vavilov Cen- erratic weather‘ that climate change is ters: regions such as southern Mexico expected to bring. and the eastern Mediterranean, where Developing Conservation That’s the irony of CWR, Greene the world’s major crops were first do- says: While they’re threatened by Strategies mesticated and the greatest diversity of their wild relatives is still found. climate change just like all wild spe- Indeed, plant breeders have recog- Plant breeders began working with cies, they’re also the same plants that nized the value of CWR for decades, CWR about a decade later and have could help us adapt our food systems thanks to renowned Russian plant ge- used them since to achieve some sig- to the new conditions. “That’s why it neticist, Nikolai Vavilov. In the 1920s nificant breeding improvements. But in recent Left: Photo by Brian Prechtel (USDA-ARS). Inset: Photo by RBG Kew and courtesy of the CWR & Climate Change Photostream on Flickr (www.flickr.com/photos/ cropwildrelatives). 6 CSA News May 2012 years, few people have studied CWR work in China and North more intensely or championed their Africa. And a former student protection more vigorously than Nigel is assisting Greene with the Maxted, a scientist at the University of U.S. strategy. Birmingham in England. As alfalfa curator for the Keen on travel, agriculture, and National Plant Germplasm System, genetic techniques,” he says. “The conserving nature from a young Greene says that CWR have inter- most related plants will offer the best age, Maxted began studying CWR ested her for a long time. But she chance to transfer favorable genes in 1981 and “basically my interest only started investigating them in into crops.” hasn’t stopped since,” he says. His depth a few years ago, after realizing When Greene was finished, her first research job involved trying to the United States had yet to identify inventory contained more than 3,000 breed legume crops, such as Phaseolus its CWR—the first step in Maxted’s species, subspecies, and varieties of species, with their wild kin. From protocol. “So, I leapt right in,” she U.S. CWR, making clear the need for there, he devised methodologies for says, “and started to put an inventory the next step in Maxted’s strategy: set- conducting “ecogeographic” surveys together.” ting priorities for conservation. For- and analyses, which produce data that tunately, this is when Colin Khoury, help in the planning of conservation Which U.S. CWR are Most a former Maxted student and current efforts, he explains. doctoral candidate at Wageningen Maxted then applied these new Valuable? University in the Netherlands, came methods in studies of many groups of Combing through the scientific along. A native Californian, Khoury CWR, publishing proposals for pro- literature and other resources, Greene not only wanted to study CWR, but tecting the plants as he went. “But un- made lists of CWR growing in the also the CWR of the United States, fortunately few people would pay any United States and then gathered where he hopes eventually to return attention,” he says. “It then became information on them, including their after many years of living overseas. clearer that not only as a scientist do status in the wild and the crops they So, from Colombia, South America, you have to publish conservation had been used to improve. She also where he works currently for the recommendations, you then have to determined how closely related each International Center for Tropical Ag- lobby for their implementation.” wild relative was to its respective riculture (CIAT) as part of his gradu- In the years since, Maxted has crop, getting help here from USDA- ate studies, Khoury got started on a pressed for CWR conservation in ARS plant taxonomist John Wiersema, prioritization scheme. many ways, most significantly by who manages taxonomic information His method takes several factors developing a step-by-step, standard- for the National Plant Germplasm into account. Because ensuring food ized protocol that countries can use to System’s database of crop genetic ma- security is the primary goal, U.S. identify and protect the CWR within terial, known as GRIN. Along similar wild relatives of the world’s 70 most their borders. The first countries he lines, Wiersema and his colleagues important food crops form the bulk of worked with to actually execute such started in 2008 methodically identify- the prioritized list. But Khoury also a plan were Syria, Lebanon, and Jor- ing CWR from all over the world and added wild relatives of what he calls dan. More recently, he helped Portu- classifying them taxonomically, the “iconic U.S. crops”—plants of value gal, Switzerland, the U.K., and several idea being that the closest relatives mainly to American agriculture, in- other European nations complete should be easiest for breeders to use. cluding sugar maple, pecan, wild rice, conservation strategies, and he’s now “That’s true in traditional breeding and Echinacea. To whittle the list down collaborating with several more. Two and perhaps even true with advanced further, he then identified the very of his graduate students currently closest kin of crop plants, or “primary iStockphoto/ermingut May 2012 CSA News 7 Science Our goal is to preserve all that genetic variability because for crop breeding purposes we’re likely going to need it.” genetic relatives,” and those CWR that adds, including cranberry, blueberry, that in fact we do have some impor- are rare or endangered. After a round and currant; pecans, hazelnut, and tant crop wild relatives.” of review by curators, plant breeders, walnut; and the stone fruits: almond, This is precisely why Maxted ar- and other experts, the list now con- peach, and cherry. Lettuce, onion, gues not only for setting global priori- tains roughly ‘300 taxa that seemingly bean, squash, sugar cane, and grape ties for CWR protection (see his paper have the most potential to contribute also have rich native gene pools in in the March–April 2012 issue of Crop to future crop improvement.
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