State of ex situ conservation of landrace groups of 25 major crops.

ABSTRACT: Crop landraces have unique local agroecological and societal functions and offer important genetic resources for plant breeding. Recognition of the value of landrace diversity and concern about its erosion on farms have led to sustained efforts to establish ex situ collections worldwide. The degree to which these efforts have succeeded in conserving landraces has not been comprehensively assessed. Here we modelled the potential distributions of eco-geographically distinguishable groups of landraces of 25 cereal, pulse and starchy root/tuber/fruit crops within their geographic regions of diversity. We then analysed the extent to which these landrace groups are represented in genebank collections, using geographic and ecological coverage metrics as a proxy for genetic diversity. We find that

SUBMITTER: Ramirez-Villegas J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9122826 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature