Presentation regarding gap analysis results for crop wild relatives of over 80 of the world's most important crops, for the annual international ASA/CSSA/SSSA conference, 3-6 November 2013, Tampa, Florida

1. Arachis pintoi (wild relative of peanut). Picture by: Neil Palmer (CIAT)
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. Arachis pintoi (wild relative of peanut). Picture by: Neil Palmer (CIAT)
General outline
• Introduction
– Definition of crop wild relatives
– Uses of crop wild relatives
– Pressures on crop wild relatives
• Methods and materials
• Results and discussion
• Future steps
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3. Arachis pintoi (wild relative of peanut). Picture by: Neil Palmer (CIAT)
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
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4. Arachis pintoi (wild relative of peanut). Picture by: Neil Palmer (CIAT)
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).
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Dale, P.J., 1992. Spread of Engineered Genes to Wild Relatives. Plant physiology, 100, pp.13-15.

5. Arachis pintoi (wild relative of peanut). Picture by: Neil Palmer (CIAT)
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)
Image by: IRRI
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Image by: www.tropicos.org

6. Arachis pintoi (wild relative of peanut). Picture by: Neil Palmer (CIAT)
Uses of CWR
Aluminium tolerance from Oryza
rufipogon in rice (Nguyen et
al., 2003)
Salinity tolerance from Solanum
cheesmaniae in tomato (Chetelat,
1995)
Image by: IRRI
Image by: TGRC
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7. Arachis pintoi (wild relative of peanut). Picture by: Neil Palmer (CIAT)
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, overexploitation, spread of invasive alien species, pollution
and the growing impacts of climate change”. (SCDB,
2009)
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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. Arachis pintoi (wild relative of peanut). Picture by: Neil Palmer (CIAT)
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
31
79
Jarvis, a, Lane, a & Hijmans, R., 2008. The effect of climate change on crop wild relatives. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment,
126(1-2), pp.13-23. Available at: http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0167880908000133 [Accessed March 16, 2011].

9. Arachis pintoi (wild relative of peanut). Picture by: Neil Palmer (CIAT)
Materials and Methods
• ~5.000.000 records database
– http://www.cwrdiversity.org/data-sources/
• 81 crop gene pools, 1187 taxa analyzed
– http://www.cwrdiversity.org/checklist/ (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
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10. Arachis pintoi (wild relative of peanut). Picture by: Neil Palmer (CIAT)
Materials and Methods
Sampling
representativeness
Geographical
extent
Environmental
coverage
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11. Arachis pintoi (wild relative of peanut). Picture by: Neil Palmer (CIAT)
Occurrence data
1187 taxa  370,777 georeferenced records
List of crops analyzed: http://goo.gl/Y19Oum
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12. Arachis pintoi (wild relative of peanut). Picture by: Neil Palmer (CIAT)
Species distribution models
(e.g.potato)
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Map prepared by: Chrystian Sosa (CIAT, 2013)

13. Arachis pintoi (wild relative of peanut). Picture by: Neil Palmer (CIAT)
Species richness (e.g.potato)
No. of taxa
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Map prepared by: Chrystian Sosa (CIAT, 2013)

14. Arachis pintoi (wild relative of peanut). Picture by: Neil Palmer (CIAT)
Species richness (81 gene pools)
Global distribution of the CWR of 81 crop gene pools
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Map prepared by: Chrystian Sosa (CIAT, 2013)

15. 900
800
71%
700
No. of CWR taxa
Arachis pintoi (wild relative of peanut). Picture by: Neil Palmer (CIAT)
Establishing priorities for field
collections
600
500
400
300
200
100
13%
12%
5%
0
High priority taxa Mid priority taxa for Low priority taxa for
for collection
collection
collection
No further
collection is
required
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16. Arachis pintoi (wild relative of peanut). Picture by: Neil Palmer (CIAT)
Species collecting gaps (e.g. potato)
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17. Arachis pintoi (wild relative of peanut). Picture by: Neil Palmer (CIAT)
Genepool collecting gaps (e.g.potato)
No. of taxa
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18. Arachis pintoi (wild relative of peanut). Picture by: Neil Palmer (CIAT)
Collecting hotspots
Global collecting hotspots for High Priority Taxa, for 76 crop gene pools
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Map prepared by: Chrystian Sosa (CIAT, 2013)

19. 0.06
140
0.05
120
0.04
100
80
0.03
60
0.02
40
CWR concentration
(No. taxa per 100 sq. km.)
160
No. of CWR taxa
Arachis pintoi (wild relative of peanut). Picture by: Neil Palmer (CIAT)
Top 20 countries with high count of High priority taxa for collection
0.01
20
0
0
No. CWR taxa
CWR concentration
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20. Arachis pintoi (wild relative of peanut). Picture by: Neil Palmer (CIAT)
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
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Arachis pintoi (wild relative of peanut). Picture by: Neil Palmer (CIAT)

22. Arachis pintoi (wild relative of peanut). Picture by: Neil Palmer (CIAT)
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)
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23. ¡Gracias!
www.cwrdiversity.org
n.p.castaneda@cgiar.org
Arachis pintoi (wild relative of peanut). Picture by: Neil Palmer (CIAT)

24. Arachis pintoi (wild relative of peanut). Picture by: Neil Palmer (CIAT)
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 10.1007/s10681-007-9363-0
Hijmans, R.J. et al., 2005. 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 fr
om 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. 2003 43: 2313–2314 DOI 10.2135/cropsci2003.2313
Munoz, L.C., Blair, M.W., Duque, M.C., Tohme, J. and Roca, W., (2004). Introgression in common bean x Tepary bean interspecific congruity‐back
cross 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., 2013. A prioritized crop wild relative inventory to help underpin global food security. Biological Conservation, 167, pp.265–275.
Available at: http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0006320713002851 [Accessed September 30, 2013].
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