In situ conservation-harnessing natural and human-derived evolutionary forces to ensure future crop adaptation.

ABSTRACT: Ensuring the availability of the broadest possible germplasm base for agriculture in the face of increasingly uncertain and variable patterns of biotic and abiotic change is fundamental for the world's future food supply. While ex situ conservation plays a major role in the conservation and availability of crop germplasm, it may be insufficient to ensure this. In situ conservation aims to maintain target species and the collective genotypes they represent under evolution. A major rationale for this view is based on the likelihood that continued exposure to changing selective forces will generate and favor new genetic variation and an increased likelihood that rare alleles that may be of value to future agriculture are maintained. However, the evidence that underpins this key rationale rema

SUBMITTER: Bellon MR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5680627 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature