Crop wild relatives (CWR) are important sources of adaptive diversity for plant breeding programmes. This paper aims to investigate the extent to which the centres of crop origin/diversity are congruent with areas of high CWR diversity. We established the predicted potential CWR distributions for 1,425 CWR species related to 167 crops using 334,527 known distribution locations...
The loss of agrobiodiversity is a topic of global impact. On a local scale, Lombardy, in the Alpine macro-Region, has lost more than 78% of its plant agrobiodiversity. Only four maize (Zea mays L. subsp. mays) landraces of Lombardy are registered in the European Register of Conservation Varieties. However, there are other maize landraces in Lombardy such as “Mais delle Fiorine...
Introgression of desirable traits from wild relatives plays an important role in crop improvement, as wild species have important characters such as high resistance to pests and pathogens. However, use of wild peanut relatives is challenging because almost all wild species are diploid and sexually incompatible with cultivated peanut, which is tetraploid (AABB genome type; 2n = 4x...
Phytases, which belong to a special category of orthophosphoric monoester phosphohydrolases, degrade inositol hexaphosphate to produce lower-grade inositol phosphate derivatives and inorganic phosphate. Thus, phytases may improve phosphorus utilization, eliminate the anti-nutrient properties of phytic acid, and mitigate environmental pollution due to phosphorus contamination. In...
Spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) is an economically important crop that is cultivated and consumed worldwide. Spinach is interfertile with the wild species S. tetrandra Steven ex M. Bieb. and S. turkestanica Iljin that therefore are presumed to include the most likely crop ancestor. Here we studied variation in 60 Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNP) previously identified in S...
Crop wild relatives (CWRs) are important reservoirs of adaptive traits for crop breeding programmes. Both ex situ and in situ conservation approaches should be deployed to ensure CWR availability for use. This paper aims to (a) create a regional database of occurrence records for the 441 priority CWRs in the Fertile Crescent, (b) identify CWR-rich areas in the Fertile Crescent...
Olea europaea subsp. cuspidata (Wall. & G. Don) Cif. is one of the six subspecies important for domestication of olive described as having valuable breeding traits. It is distributed from South Africa to the Middle East and the Mediterranean region to China mainly at mid to high altitudes with adequate precipitation. The currently rather fragmented Olea europaea subsp. cuspidata...
The study analysed the conservation gaps of the priority crop wild relatives (CWR) taxa for Malawi in order to contribute to the development of a harmonized conservation strategy that helps secure the priority CWR under in situ and ex situ. We used taxa distribution modelling, complementarity analysis and ecogeographic land characterization map to analyse spatial diversity and...
Pinus cembra L. is a coniferous European mountain range tree rich in oleoresins and essential oils. Twig tips with needles are the most common tree parts used to obtain essential oils. As the whole tree contains volatiles, the essential oil composition from different parts was studied, including twig tips with needles from the bottom, the top and the cone bearing branches, cones...
Data on literature about archaeological remains of cultivated plants had been systematically compiled and reported in a series of articles reaching from 1965 to 2000. Here we report about literature which appeared from 1826 (first publications found on this topic) to 1964. The complete citations of these publications (1026 items) can be found in an electronic appendix.
Anthoxanthum aristatum Boiss. is native to southern and western Europe and North Africa. In Central Europe this species is recognized as invasive. Its ability to colonize various habitats may result from a high level of polymorphic isozyme loci and high morphological variability. The aim of this study was to recognize the degree of genetic diversity of the studied invasive...
The European ground cherry (Prunus fruticosa Pall.) as a potential dwarfing rootstock attracted the attention of cherry rootstock researchers in several breeding projects. In order to clarify some doubtful classification of collected and promising specimen of supposed hybrids, we compared morphological characteristics to literature data. Genetic analysis was also undertaken using...
The objective of this work was to assess the genetic variability and structure of a new weed in Spanish maize fields, and investigate its geographical patterns using 17 microsatellites. Commercial maize varieties (C), maize-like weeds (MLW), putative hybrids with C (WCH), and teosintes (Tm: Zea mays ssp. mexicana and Tp: Z. mays ssp. parviglumis) were analyzed. The weed genetic...
Capsicum species are of great economic, medicinal, culinary and cultural value worldwide, however their genetic potential is still underutilized. In this study, a set of 21 microsatellite markers showed utility for distinguishing a diverse group of 42 Capsicum genotypes representing 11 species. The level of polymorphism among these genotypes was evaluated by calculating the...
Spinach (Spinacia oleracea L.) is a highly nutritious leafy vegetable and an economically important food crop. The wild species S. turkestanica Iljin and S. tetrandra Steven ex M. Bieb. are inter-fertile with cultivated spinach and constitute important sources of novel characters to improve spinach varieties, such as for their resistance to pests and diseases. Despite their...