Presentation delivered by Dr Imke Thormann at the International Agrobiodiversity Congress 2016, held in Delhi, India, 6-9 November. Imke Thormann's presentation focused on crop wild relative genetic erosion and how it can be studied. Find out more about the India Agrobiodiversity Congress: http://www.bioversityinternational.org/iac2016/

1. Re-collection to assess temporal variation in wild barley
diversity in Jordan
Thormann I, Engels JMM, Börner A, Lohwasser U, Pillen K, Richards CM
1st International Agrobiodiversity Congress, 6-9 November 2016, New Delhi, India

2. Genetic erosion studies on Crop Wild Relatives
How changes the diversity over time?
Where has crop wild relative diversity
been lost?
What factors drive change and loss?
INTRODUCTION

3. Germplasm collections as resource
Plenty of germplasm collecting during the past century
Conserved in genebanks around the world
Snapshots
of diversity
Useful as baseline
One example:
Bioversity International
Collecting Database
http://bioversity.github.io/geosite/INTRODUCTION

4. Bioversity International Collecting Database
Over 220,000 samples collected in over 1000 collecting trips
between 1975 and 2012 (90% collected between 1975-1995)
27% are wild species
25% of trips collected
only wild species
Location data and
mission reports
available
INTRODUCTION http://bioversity.github.io/geosite/

5. Re-collection of barley in Jordan: 1981 / 2012
METHODS
Verification with Google earth and gazetteers
• 1981 seed samples conserved
in NordGen
• Set of wild barley population
pairs collected from same 18
sites in both years

6. Data and analyses
METHODS
• Field trial in IPK
• 16 individual plants per
population
• 38 SSRs for genetic diversity,
differentiation and population
structure analyses
• 10 variable phenotypic traits for
assessment of relative changes
in phenotypes

7. Data and analyses
METHODS
• Trends in temperature and rainfall variables; differences between
collecting time points
• Correlations between climatic, phenotypic and genetic change, and
with geographical variables (latitude and elevation).
VariableYear 1980 1981 … 2012 2013
Annual precipitation
Driest month
Driest quarter
Wettest month
Wettest quarter
Annual mean temp
Hottest month
Hottest quarter
Coldest month
Coldest quarter
• Analogue to Bioclim
variables 1, 5, 6, 10-14,
16, 17

8. RESULTS
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
7575 7561 7572 7586 7588 7640 7599 7600 7595 7594 7596 7602 7616 7604 7617 7606 7612 7628
Change in annual, quarterly and monthly temperature means between
collecting periods per site
Change annual
temp
Change
warmest
quarter
Change coldest
quarter
Change
warmest
month
change coldest
month
Annual temperature

9. RESULTS
• Population structure
largely maintained
• Higher genetic diversity
in 2012
(no. of alleles, allelic richness,
no. of multi-locus genotypes)
• Lower differentiation
among populations in 2012
(lower FST, increased genetic
and physical admixture).

10. RESULTS
• Phenotype variation within and among sites comparable in both collecting
years, confirming high variability observed in other studies
• Relative change in phenotype among collecting years (further field trials)
• No correlations (except change in climate with latitude)

11. Summary
RESULTS
• Observed pattern of increased diversity, reduced differentiation and
maintenance of phenotypic variation: evidence of an additional
possible response in CWR exposed to a variable and changing
environment.
• Reduced differentiation indicating increased seed dispersal, likely
due to the intensification of agriculture and grazing.
•  include agricultural practices and seed flow in studies on CWR
growing in disturbed habitats and agricultural areas.
• Useful approach to investigate temporal changes in CWR diversity
• Bioversity International Collecting Database: rich source of
baseline data for similar studies.

12. Acknowledgements, references
• National Center for Agricultural Research and Extension (NCARE), Jordan
• International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA)
• National Center for Genetic Resources Preservation (NCGRP), USDA, USA
• German Federal Genebank, Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant
Research (IPK)
• Bioversity International.
Thormann I, Reeves P, Thumm S, Reilley A, JMM Engels, Lohwasser U, Börner A, Pillen K, Richards CM (2016)
Genotypic and phenotypic changes in wild barley (Hordeum vulgare subsp. spontaneum) during a period of
climate change in Jordan. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution. DOI: 10.1007/s10722-016-0437-5.
Thormann I, Fiorino E, Halewood M, Engels JMM (2015) Plant genetic resources collections and associated
information as baseline resource for genetic diversity studies – an assessment of the IBPGR supported
collections. Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 62(8):1279-1293.

13. Thank you
www.bioversityinternational.org/subscribe
@BioversityInt
Imke Thormann
i.thormann@cgiar.org