1. A global perspective on crop wild relatives: distributions and conservation ex situ
Project: “Adapting agriculture to climate change: collecting, protecting and preparing crop wild relatives”
Nora P. Castañeda-Álvarez, Colin K. Khoury, Chrystian C. Sosa, Harold A. Achicanoy, Vivian Bernau, Holly Vincent, Andy Jarvis, Paul C. Struik and Nigel Maxted
ASA, CSSA and SSSA International Annual Meetings, November 6, 2013, Tampa (FL)

2. General outline Introduction Methods and materials
Definition of crop wild relatives
Uses of crop wild relatives
Pressures on crop wild relatives
Methods and materials
Results and discussion
Future steps

3. What is a Crop Wild Relative?
Wild plant species closely related to crops, including wild ancestors
Wild “cousins” of cultivated plants
Lactuca serriola. Image by: C. Khoury

4. Why Crop Wild Relatives
“Crop Wild Relatives (CWR) may serve as source of novel traits, as most of them have not experienced strong selective pressures and they share a common ancestry with crops, easing the use of their genes in traditional breeding and biotechnology when required” (Dale 1992).
Among plant genetic resources, we have CWR.
- Greater trait diversity if compared to other breeding materials
- No domestication bottleneck, and genetic closeness to cultivated species, therefore, important resources for crop improvement
Dale, P.J., Spread of Engineered Genes to Wild Relatives. Plant physiology, 100, pp

5. Uses of CWR
Resistance to black Sigatoka and Fusarium wilt from Musa acuminata ssp. burmannica in banana (Escalant et al., 2002)
Grassy stunt virus resistance from Oryza nivara in rice (Brar & Khush, 1997)
BIOTIC TRAITS
Grassy stunt virus transmitted by the brown plant hopper (BPH)
M. acuminata ssp. Burmannica (accessions calcutta 4)
Image by: IRRI
Image by:

6. Uses of CWR
Aluminium tolerance from Oryza rufipogon in rice (Nguyen et al., 2003)
Salinity tolerance from Solanum cheesmaniae in tomato (Chetelat, 1995)
ABIOTIC TRAITS
Tolerance to abiotic constraints gives CWR a potential to help adapting crops to harsher environmental conditions, as those expected due to climate change
Image by: IRRI
Image by: TGRC

7. Pressures on CWR
“Two thirds of the world’s plant species are in danger of extinction with pressure from the growing human population, habitat modification and deforestation, over-exploitation, spread of invasive alien species, pollution and the growing impacts of climate change”. (SCDB, 2009)
CWR are also subject of pressures that can jeopardize their long-term survival
Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (2009). The Convention on Biological Diversity Plant Conservation Report: A Review of Progress in implementing the Global Strategy of Plant Conservation (GSPS). 48 pages

8. Pressures on CWR: Climate change
~2055
Extinction predicted for 16-22% (110 species)
High habitat fragmentation
No. of species with area loss 26
Scenario:
unlimited migration
Predictions made for 2055
Scenarios: limited, unlimited and no-migration
Extinction predicted for 16-22% species (depending on migration scenario)
-Vigna: cowpea 31 79
Jarvis, a, Lane, a & Hijmans, R., The effect of climate change on crop wild relatives. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 126(1-2), pp Available at: [Accessed March 16, 2011].

9. Materials and Methods ~5.000.000 records database
81 crop gene pools, 1187 taxa analyzed
(Vincent et al., 2013)
Environmental layers: Bioclim dataset (Hijmans et al., 2005)
Spatial resolution: 2.5min (~5km at equator)
Gap Analysis methodology (Ramírez-Villegas et al., 2010)
Results evaluation with experts
* 81 crop gene pools, 1187 taxa analyzed (GP1, GP2 and GP3 when literature supports confirmed and potential uses)
* Fine-tuning with experts (using surveys)

10. Materials and Methods Sampling representativeness
Environmental coverage
Geographical extent
Uses germplasm passport and herbarium specimens to compare how well represented is a taxon in seedbanks
3 dimensional analysis measuring how well sampled is a taxon, what is the proportion of its geographical extent that is represented in seedbanks, what is the proportion of ecosystems where the taxon occurs that are represented in seedbanks
Independent measurements
Assign levels of prioritization for each taxa
Four levels of prioritization

11. Occurrence data 1187 taxa  370,777 georeferenced records
List of crops analyzed:

12. Species distribution models (e.g.potato)
Experts potato: Alberto Salas (CIP) and David Spooner (USDA)
78 species analyzed
HPS: 35% (27 spp.) / MPS: 33% (26 spp.) / LPS: 23% (18 spp.) / NFCR: 9% (7spp.)
Map prepared by: Chrystian Sosa (CIAT, 2013)

13. Species richness (e.g.potato)
Experts potato: Alberto Salas (CIP) and David Spooner (USDA)
78 species analyzed
HPS: 35% (27 spp.) / MPS: 33% (26 spp.) / LPS: 23% (18 spp.) / NFCR: 9% (7spp.)
No. of taxa
Map prepared by: Chrystian Sosa (CIAT, 2013)

14. Species richness (81 gene pools)
Global distribution of the CWR of 81 crop gene pools
Total mapped species: 957 (80%)
HPS mapped: 656 (77%) belonging to 74 gene pools
3 crop gene pools with no HPS-CWR: chickpea, grasspea and lentil
Map prepared by: Chrystian Sosa (CIAT, 2013)

15. Establishing priorities for field collections
71%
3 crop gene pools with no HPS-CWR: chickpea, grasspea and lentil
13%
12% 5%

16. Species collecting gaps (e.g. potato)

17. Genepool collecting gaps (e.g.potato)
78 species analyzed
HPS: 35% (27 spp.) / MPS: 33% (26 spp.) / LPS: 23% (18 spp.) / NFCR: 9% (7spp.)
Experts potato: Alberto Salas (CIP) and David Spooner (USDA)
No. of taxa

18. Collecting hotspots
Global collecting hotspots for High Priority Taxa, for 76 crop gene pools
Areas with high concentration of crop wild relatives needing urgent actions for ex-situ conservation
Map prepared by: Chrystian Sosa (CIAT, 2013)

19. Interesting cases: Greece, Azerbaijan, Nepal, Bulgaria, Portugal -> High count, high density
In terms of establishing

20. A global initiative on crop wild relatives
Identify, collect, conserve, document use of key CWR for climate change adaptation (in developing countries)
10 years funding pledged by Norwegian government, starting 2011
Target crops:
Avena sativa
Oat
Malus domestica
Apple
Secale cereale
Rye
Cajanus cajan
Pigeonpea
Medicago sativa
Alfalfa/Lucerne
Solanum melongena
Eggplant/Aubergine
Cicer arietinum
Chickpea
Musa acuminata
Cavendish banana
Solanum tuberosum
Potato
Daucus carota
Wild carrot
Musa balbisiana
Guangdong plantain
Sorghum bicolor
Sorghum
Eleusine coracana
Finger millet
Oryza glaberrima
African rice
Triticum aestivum
Bread wheat
Helianthus annuus
Sunflower
Oryza sativa
Rice
Vicia faba
Faba bean
Hordeum vulgare
Barley
Pennisetum glaucum
Pearl millet
Vicia sativa
Common vetch
Ipomoea batatas
Sweet potato
Phaseolus lunatus
Lima bean
Vigna subterranea
Bambara groundnut
Lathyrus sativus
Grass pea/Common chickling
Phaseolus vulgaris
Garden bean
Vigna unguiculata
Cowpea
Lens culinaris
Lentil
Pisum sativum
Garden pea

21. The project is creating partnerships with national collaborations and creating collecting guides for them

22. Take home message
Urgent conservation actions are needed for more than half of the CWR considered in the analysis
Opportunities to piggyback on other conservation initiatives (especially for biodiversity hotspots such as: Mediterranean basin, South-Central China, Polynesia/Micronesia and Indonesia + Malaysia)
Sundaland = Malaysia + Indonesia

23. www.cwrdiversity.org n.p.castaneda@cgiar.org
¡Gracias!
Get in contact to collaborate!

24. Additional references
Escalant J, Sharrock S, Frison E (2002) The genetic improvement of Musa using conventional breeding, and modern tools of molecular and cell biology, International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain Farooq, S., Iqbal, N., Asghar, M. and Shah T.M. (1992). Intergeneric hybridization for wheat improvement. VI. Production of salt tolerant germplasm through crossing wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) with Aegilops cylindrica and its significance in practical agriculture. Journal of Genetics and Breeding, 46: 125–132. Farooq, S., Asghar, M., Iqbal. N., Asian, E., Arif, M. and Shah T.M. (1995). Production of salt tolerant wheat germplasm through crossing cultivated wheat with Aegilops cylindrica, IL Field evaluation of salt tolerant germplasm. Cereal Research Community, 23: 275–282. Hajjar, R. and T. Hodgkin. (2007) The use of wild relatives in crop improvement: A survey of developments over the last 20 years. Euphytica 156:1-13. DOI /s Hijmans, R.J. et al., Very high resolution interpolated climate surfaces for global land areas. International Journal of Climatology, 25, pp.1965–1978. King, I.F., Forster, B.P., Law, C.C., Cant, K.Allium, Orford, S., Gorham, J., Reader, S. and T,E. Miller, T.E., (1997a). Introgression of salt tolerance genes from Thinopyrum bessarabicum into wheat. New Phytologist, 137: 75–81. Lexer, C., Lai, Z. and Rieseberg, L.H. (2004). Candidate gene polymorphisms associated with salt tolerance in wild sunflower hybrids: implications for the origin of Helianthus paradoxus, a diploid hybrid species. New Phytologist, 161:225–233. Miller, J.F. and G.J. Seiler. Registration of Five Oilseed Maintainer (HA 429–HA 433) Sunflower Germplasm Lines Crop Sci : 2313–2314 DOI /cropsci Munoz, L.C., Blair, M.W., Duque, M.C., Tohme, J. and Roca, W., (2004). Introgression in common bean x Tepary bean interspecific congruity‐backcross lines as measured by AFLP marker. Crop Science, 44: 637–645. Nguyen, B., Brar, D., Bui, B., Nguyen, T., Pham, L. and Nguyen, H. (2003). Identification and mapping of the QTL for aluminium tolerance introgressed from the new source, Oryza rufipogon Griff, into indica rice (Oryza sativa L.). Theoretical and Applied Genetics, 106: 583–593. Rick C, Chetelat R (1995) Utilization of related wild species for tomato improvement, First International Symposium on Solanacea for Fresh Market. Acta Hortic 412:21–38 Suneson, C.Allium, (1967a). Registration of Rapida oats. Crop Science, 7: 168. Suneson, C.Allium, (1967b). Registration of Sierra oats. Crop Science, 7: 168. Vincent, H. et al., A prioritized crop wild relative inventory to help underpin global food security. Biological Conservation, 167, pp.265–275. Available at: [Accessed September 30, 2013]. Wang, W., Vinocur, B. and Altaian, Allium (2003). Plant responses to drought, salinity and extreme temperatures: Towards genetic engineering for stress tolerance. Planta, 218: 1–14.