As world population increases, a challenging situation for the agricultural scientists to increase crops productivity to meet the growing food demands is a concern. Due to the domestication process and to breeding improvements, genetic bottlenecks on crop plants is recurrent, thus broadening the genetic base of crops by introgression with wild relatives is a growing need. Therefore, exploration and characterization of wild genetic resources of important crop species is vital for the efficient utilization of these gene pools for sustainable genetic improvements to assure food security. Crop Wild Relatives (CWRs) successfully colonized adverse environments; they are veritable repositories of beneficial traits lost in crops during domestication and breeding, including those for biotic and abiotic tolerance.
Here we provide how in situ biodiversity can be used as a viable streamline for crop improvement, using the example of crop wild relatives for sugar beet from the Mediterranean Area. Sugar beet (Beta vulgaris ssp. vulgaris) is one of the most important European crops for both food and sugar production. Several studies have addressed crop-to-wild gene flow, yet, for breeding programs genetic variability associated with agronomically important traits remains limited namely for abiotic factors. We will present how in situ biodiversity on sugar beet CWR using Beta and Patellifolia species can be surveyed for increment knowledge on agronomically traits associated to abiotic factors, as salinity and drought. For that, we will present new genetic and genomics tools applications to accomplish phenotype-to-genotype associations, by screening wild relatives occurring in habitats where selective pressures are in play (i.e., populations in salt marshes for salinity tolerance; populations where pathogens are present may hamper resistance traits). Particularly, sugar beets CWR from Portuguese natural populations occur in disturbed and undisturbed areas and may grow in extreme habitats of salt and drought conditions mainly in coastal regions. Further, we will present the integration of ecological information, genetic diversity, epigenomic and cytogenetic data as a streamline to select the most important sugar beet CWRs on agronomically important traits. The connection between breeding progress in crop species and the need for the effectiveness conservation programs for CWR tends to be overlooked. However, instead of unbiased in situ conservation, as currently occurs with passive conservation in Protected Areas, genetic and genomic tools help to prioritize which CWR populations should deserve more active conservation measures and, as well, incorporate a National Genetic Resources Conservation program. Also, ex situ conservation on national and international seed banks is key to safeguard genetic diversity potential for future integration on breeding programmes.
Overall, our approach will enable to identify potential hotspots for agrobiodiversity for sugar beet crop improvement towards abiotic stress tolerance and further promote its sustainable production at long-term, considering the increasingly projections of drought and salinization of land.
Keywords: agrigenomic, in situ conservation, genetic diversity, sustainability, genetic resources
3a. Life on land
