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Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Paul C. Struik

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Guest Editor

Department of Plant Sciences, Centre for Crop Systems Analysis, Wageningen University & Research (WUR), Anna van Saksenlaan 51, 2593 HW Den Haag, The Netherlands
Interests: agricultural policy; arable farming; biodiversity; crop husbandry; crop production; plant production systems; seed production; agrobiodiversity; crop growth models; crop physiology; virtual plants; ecological modeling; photosynthesis; potatoes

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Crop wild relatives (CWRs) have been widely used in crop improvement, for example, to enhance disease resistance, improve tolerance to abiotic constraints, or to improve quality. We will need CWRs in the future more than ever as sources for novel traits that will make our crops climate robust and suitable for future food systems while delivering other ecosystem services. The use of CWRs will most likely also become more productive and easier with the further development of novel breeding techniques, provided they are available for such use.

At the same time, CWRs are threatened by global change, including changes in current land cover, loss of habitats caused by urbanization, and changing rainfall patterns. There is an urgent need to act for worldwide conservation of what is left of crop wild relatives and their habitats based on a thorough gap analyses.

This Special Issue welcomes papers on trends in the dynamics of wild populations, ecological spread, conservation, availability, and use of crop wild relatives.

Prof. Dr. Paul C. Struik
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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Keywords

biodiversity
climate robust genes
crop breeding
crop wild relatives
ex situ conservation
gap analysis
gene banks
genetic diversity
germplasm
in situ conservation

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Review

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20 pages, 2199 KiB

Open AccessReview

Korean Wild Soybeans (Glycine soja Sieb & Zucc.): Geographic Distribution and Germplasm Conservation

by Muhammad Amjad Nawaz, Xiao Lin, Ting-Fung Chan, Junghee Ham, Tai-Sun Shin, Sezai Ercisli, Kirill S. Golokhvast, Hon-Ming Lam and Gyuhwa Chung

Agronomy 2020, 10(2), 214; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10020214 - 02 Feb 2020

Cited by 16 | Viewed by 8241

Abstract

Domesticated crops suffer from major genetic bottlenecks while wild relatives retain higher genomic diversity. Wild soybean (Glycine soja Sieb. & Zucc.) is the presumed ancestor of cultivated soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr.), and is an important genetic resource for soybean improvement. Among the East Asian habitats of wild soybean (China, Japan, Korea, and Northeastern Russia), the Korean peninsula is of great importance based on archaeological records, domestication history, and higher diversity of wild soybeans in the region. The collection and conservation of these wild soybean germplasms should be put on high priority. Chung’s Wild Legume Germplasm Collection maintains more than 10,000 legume accessions with an intensive and prioritized wild soybean germplasm collection (>6000 accessions) guided by the international code of conduct for plant germplasm collection and transfer. The center holds a library of unique wild soybean germplasms collected from East Asian wild habitats including the Korean mainland and nearby islands. The collection has revealed interesting and useful morphological, biochemical, and genetic diversity. This resource could be utilized efficiently in ongoing soybean improvement programs across the globe. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Conservation on The Move: Towards Sustainable Conservation and Use of Crop Wild Relatives)

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Other

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11 pages, 767 KiB

Open AccessConcept Paper

Why Self-fertilizing Plants Still Exist in Wild Populations: Diversity Assurance through Stress-Induced Male Sterility May Promote Selective Outcrossing and Recombination

by Maarten van Ginkel and Ronald C. H. Flipphi

Agronomy 2020, 10(3), 349; https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10030349 - 03 Mar 2020

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 4138

Abstract

Climate change creates challenges for wild species, but plants have survived and adapted to similar changes in their evolutionary past. Most plants were originally outcrossing, one theoretical genetic reason being that self-fertilization does not create novel recombinants that allow adaptation. Thus selfing seems an evolutionary “dead end”. Nevertheless, self-fertilizing plants make up 14% of seed plant species. We offer a new interpretation of a response by self-fertilizing wild species to extreme existential threats, which creates novel recombinant progeny. This proposed mechanism goes beyond reproductive assurance, the usual explanation of selfing. Extreme stress, such as excessive heat within a specific window, first makes plants male-sterile, while female organs remain functional and can receive wind-borne pollen from any of the few nearby stress-tolerant individuals. Thus stress-induced male sterility enables and/or enhances outcrossing in selfing plants. Although in practice this proposed mechanism requires very special circumstances and operates only in certain species with conducive floral traits, we posit that over evolutionary time even such rare events can make a significant lasting impact on a species’ survival in changing conditions. This proposed mechanism, which we call Diversity Assurance, allows a population subject to severe stress to sample preferentially those genes that underpin tolerance to that specific stress. These genes are then recombined in subsequent generations, along with the male-sterility-under-stress trait of the female parent. This contributes in part to explain the effective evolution and hence persistence of self-fertilizing species. Diversity Assurance, we propose, is an adaptive mechanism that has been selected under extreme stress, underpinned by a simple loss-of-function of the male reproductive system. It may be triggered not only by heat, but also by other stressors. This proposed mechanism helps to explain why even highly self-fertilizing plant species remain able to respond to environmental changes through triggered outcrossing. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Conservation on The Move: Towards Sustainable Conservation and Use of Crop Wild Relatives)

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