Incorporating evolutionary and threat processes into crop wild relatives conservation

Area of Science:

• Conservation Biology
• Evolutionary Genetics
• Agricultural Science

Background:

• Intraspecific genetic diversity of crop wild relatives (CWR) is crucial for crop breeding and food security but often overlooked in conservation planning.
• Existing frameworks typically do not integrate evolutionary and threat processes specific to CWR genetic diversity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and apply a systematic conservation planning approach that incorporates proxies of genetic differentiation for CWR.
• To identify priority conservation areas for CWR by accounting for evolutionary drivers and threat processes.

Main Methods:

• Utilized systematic conservation planning tools to create hierarchical landscape prioritizations.
• Integrated factors such as historical/environmental drivers of genetic diversity and taxa-specific threat tolerances (e.g., to human-modified habitats, extinction risk).

Main Results:

• Developed a novel methodology to generate proxies for genetic differentiation in CWR.
• Produced hierarchical landscape prioritizations for conservation, considering both evolutionary history and anthropogenic threats.

Conclusions:

• The proposed approach effectively guides the identification of conservation areas for CWR, supporting national action plans.
• This methodology can inform public policy, mitigate threats to CWR, and guide future germplasm collection efforts for evolutionary resilience.