Stephanie L. Greene, Colin Khoury

USDA, ARS NPGS-Plant Germplasm Introduction and Testing, Prosser, WA Decision and Policy Analysis Program, CIAT, Cali, Colombia

What's In Our Back Yard? Developing An Inventory of U.S.

Native and Naturalized Crop Germplasm

(F. Cox, 2007)

Outline 1.  Why focus on crop wild

relatives (CWR) and economically important wild crops in the U.S.?

2.  Developing a CWR inventory

3.  Prioritizing the inventory 4.  Next steps

# CWR taxa used

# of References

Maxted and Kell (2009) indentified 291 papers reporting the use of 189 CWR taxa to improve 29 crops

•  39% Disease •  17% Pest

•  10% Yield •  4% Fertility/Restorers

•  17% Quality/Husbandry •  13% Abiotic Stress

CWR viewed as a key strategy for developing crops adapted to climate change

“one of the most concrete steps taken to date to ensure that agriculture, and humanity, adapts to climate change.” ---Erik Solheim, Norwegian Minister for Environment and Development,

Norway pledged $50 million over a decade to systematically find, gather, catalogue, use, and save the wild relatives of wheat, rice, beans, potato, barley, lentils, chickpea, and other essential food crops. The work will be led by the Trust, working in partnership with national agricultural research institutes, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, U.K. and the CGIAR

Global Crop Diversity Trust 2010 Annual Report

“Loss of PGR has reduced options for the agricultural sector. The major causes of genetic erosion are land clearing, population pressures, overgrazing, environmental degradation and changing agricultural practices.”

The FAO State of the World’s Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (2010)

Vulnerable to Climate Change

Model-based predictions: Ø Liva et al (2009). By 2060, 40 of 69 protected areas would no longer have the right climate to support currently existing populations of all 8 Mexican cucurbit CWR

Ø Jarvis et al. (2008) By 2055, 16-22% of Arachis, Solanum and Vigna CWR will be extinct

Ø Thuiller (2005)- By 2080, 50% of 1350 studied plant species would be vulnerable or threatened by climate change

Conservation Status

Of accessions conserved in global ex situ collections, only 18% are CWR

USA Conservation

The NPGS currently houses over 540,000 accessions representing over 13,500

species (GRIN 2011), but only 2.6 % of our collection is wild germplasm collected

in the United States.

Model for the development of national CWR strategies (Maxted et al. 2007)

Ø Inventory includes CWR and taxa directly used for food, fiber, forage, medicine, ornamental, and restoration purposes Ø  Includes both native and naturalized taxa Ø CWR definition

wild plant taxon that has an indirect use derived from its close genetic relationship to a crop; this relationship is defined in terms of Gene Pools (GP) (Harlan, and de Wet 1971), 1,2 and 3 or taxon groups 1 to 4 (Maxted et al. 2006)

Ø Sources: GRIN World Economic Plants Database (Wiersema and León (1999); Flora of North America; Herbs of Commerce, McGuffin et al. (2000), Native Seed Network database (www.nativeseednetwork.org).

Ø Fall 2010- Draft inventory sent to 50 specialists for peer review

Developing the U.S. Inventory

U.S. Inventory contains 3000+ taxa

Ø Most taxa are for wild or partially domesticated crops used for timber, revegetation, forage, medicinal or ornamental purposes

Ø 364 CWR taxa are useful for breeding 65 crops

• Sixty of these taxa are naturalized species

Inventory can be found at http://tinyurl.com/3hu6gq9

Inventory Results Ø Species in the genus Helianthus are the most abundant wild taxa. In addition to wild forms of Helianthus annuus, there are 23 taxa in GP 2, and 28 taxa in GP 3, with a total of 2121 accessions in ex situ collections Ø Other genera that are CWR to domesticated crops, with over 10 or more native taxa, include Frageria, Lupinus, Prunus, Ribes, Rubus, Vaccinium and Vitis. Ø CWR genera of domesticates that have limited representation in ex situ collections include Gossypium, Lactuca, Prunus, Ribes (gooseberry), Saccharum, Vaccinium (cranberry), Tripsacum and Zizania

Conservation status (native taxa) Ø 2039 taxa are globally secure Ø 384 are apparently secure (G4) Ø 88 are globally vulnerable (G3) Ø 22 are globally imperiled (G2), including Tripsicum floridanum, an endemic CWR in GP 3 for maize and Rubus macraei, an endemic CWR in GP 2 for red raspberry Ø  ~ 8 taxa that are critically imperiled (G1), including 2 species of Helianthus and Juglans hindsii, an endemic in GP 2 of walnut

Inventory Results

Approach- Identify true “CWR” taxa

Potential value to breeding and crop production (Potential Use Value)

Primary focus on food crops, but also forage, medicinal, ornamental, etc.

First step- define a list of major world crops Ø  Data gathered using FAOSTAT, published literature, Annex 1. ITPGRFA Ø  World Crop List was prioritized based on number of sources that cited crop (Priority 1, Priority 2) Ø Genera identified in gene pools of major world crops

Prioritizing the Inventory

242 World’s Top Crops (268 genera)

§ 101 crops (9 genera) in Priority 1 § 141 crops (149 genera) in Priority 2

http://tinyurl.com/3udvulb

This list included all the most important agricultural crops around the world by a number of measures, and covers all crops listed in FAOSTAT for US production and food supply, with virtually all major US crops on Priority 1.

Major World Crop List

Ø Applied World Crops list to the US National Inventory Ø Reviewed US Inventory and added additional taxa:

brome (Bromus), Cuphea, groundcherry (Physalis), St. John’s Wort (Hypericum), liquorice (Glycyrrhiza), pitanga (Eugenia), and Echinacea

Ø Added species that are iconic wild crops in the US sugar maple (Acer saccharum), wild rice (Zizania spp.), Echinacea, pine nut species of Pinus, pecan (Carya illinoinensis, jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis) and the alcohol/sugar taxa of Agave

Ø 2,014 taxa of 159 priority genera occur in the US • 905 taxa of 74 Priority 1 genera • 1,108 taxa of 85 Priority 2 genera.

Priorities assigned to U.S. Inventory

Allium (onion), Cucurbita (squash), Fragaria (strawberry), Helianthus (sunflower), Ipomoea (sweet potato), Lactuca (lettuce), Phaseolus (bean), Prunus (cherry, almond, peach), Ribes (currant), Rubus (raspberry), Saccharum (sugar cane), Vaccinium (blueberry, cranberry), and Vitis (grape), among others.

Important crops with rich native genepools in US

Ø Focus : 250-300 priority 1 taxa (most closely related to crops)

• Includes richest genepools of native CWR • Also major wild species utilized for food or medicine. • Mainly taxa in GP 1, 2 some GP 3 if utilized

Ø Priority 1 taxa will be subjected to a full gap analysis to identify collecting priorities and in situ conservation opportunities Ø Distantly related taxa will receive a superficial gap analysis to identify ex situ gaps and prioritized for additional collecting

Next Steps

Ø Non-native populations will not be considered unless identified as important by the breeding community Ø Any taxa identified as rare or threatened will be given particular attention in conservation recommendations

Next Steps, Continued

Ø Peer review our priority genepools http://cwroftheus.wordpress.com/

(deadline end November) Ø Contribute species occurrence data Ø Validate the results of the gap analyses Ø Contact: c.khoury@cgiar.org

Community input will improve the process

We Want Your Input!

Acknowledgements John Wiersema, USDA, ARS Nigel Maxted, Univ. of Birmingham, UK Members of the PGOC CWR Subcommittee NPGS Curators CGC Chairs and Members Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Image Gallery