Global conservation priorities for crop wild relatives

The wild relatives of domesticated crops possess genetic diversity useful for developing more productive, nutritious and resilient crop varieties. However, their conservation status and availability for utilization are a concern, and have not been quantified globally. This paper models the global distribution of 1,076 taxa related to 81 crops, using occurrence information collected from biodiversity, herbarium and gene bank databases. The study compares the potential geographic and ecological diversity encompassed in these distributions with that currently accessible in gene banks, as a means to estimate the comprehensiveness of the conservation of genetic diversity. The results indicate that the diversity of crop wild relatives is poorly represented in gene banks. The authors conclude that a systematic effort is needed to improve the conservation and availability of crop wild relatives for use in plant breeding.