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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Madison, Wisconsin » Vegetable Crops Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #300870

Title: Unavailability of wild relatives

Author
item EMSHWILLER, EVE - University Of Wisconsin
item CALBERTO-SANCHEZ, GERMAN - Bioversity, Colombia
item GEZAHEGN, GIRMA - International Institute Of Tropical Agriculture (IITA)
item Jansky, Shelley
item SARDOS, JULIE - Bioversity International
item STAVER, CHARLES - Bioversity International
item STODDARD, FREDERICK - University Of Helsinki
item ROUZ, NICOLAS - Bioversity International

Submitted to: Crop Wild Relatives and Climate Change
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/1/2014
Publication Date: 9/4/2015
Citation: Emshwiller, E., Calberto-Sanchez, G., Gezahegn, G., Jansky, S., Sardos, J., Staver, C., Stoddard, F.L., Rouz, N. 2015. Unavailability of wild relatives. In: Redden, R., Yadav, S.S., Maxted, N., Dulloo, E., Guarino, L., Smith, P., editors. Crop Wild Relatives and Climate Change. Hoboken, NJ:Wiley-Blackwell. p. 224-249.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The unavailability of crop wild relatives may come in many forms, including limited possibilities of gene flow with related species due to clonality, differing ploidy levels, or other crossing barriers between species. Alternatively, it may simply mean that we lack information about the wild relatives. In this chapter we first discuss clonally propagated crops, which may or may not have limited fertility in general or in interspecific crosses. We also discuss polyploid crops and detail the genetic consequences of polyploidy depending on the different kinds of formation of 2n gametes. In other cases, the “unavailability” of crop wild relatives really means a lack of information about the wild relatives, so a few examples of recent advances in studies of the origins of crops and their evolutionary relationships with their wild relatives are described, including in the genera Zea and Manihot. Finally, we describe studies that aim to predict the levels of extinction of species or extirpation of populations, including of crop wild relatives, as the global climate changes in coming decades, and the factors that make such predictions challenging.