Potential and limits of exploitation of crop wild relatives for pea, lentil and chickpea improvement
2020
Coyne, Clarice J. | Kumar, Shiv | Wettberg, Eric B. | Marques, Edward | Berger, Jens D. | Redden, Robert J. | Ellis, Noel T. | Brus, Jan | Zablatzká, Lenka | Smykal, Petr
Legumes represent the second most important family of crop plants after grasses, accounting for approximately 27% of the world's crop production. Past domestication process resulted in high degree of relatedness between modern varieties leading to narrower genetic base of cultivated germplasm, prone to pests and diseases. Crop wild relatives (CWRs) harbour genetic diversity tested by natural selection in respective environment. To fully understand and exploit this process, studies in the geographical centers of origin are needed combining ecology, physiology and genetics. With the advent of modern genomics and computation, combined with systematic phenotyping, it is feasible to revisit wild accessions and landraces and prioritize their use for breeding providing source of disease resistance, drought tolerance, nutrient density etc. Establishment of hybrid population with CWRs give breeders a considerable benefit on the pre-breeding task of harnessing wild alleles and provides extremely valuable long term resources. There is need of further collecting and ex situ conservation of crop wild relative diversity of these taxa before the habitat is altered by human activities and climate change. We focus on three Fertile Crescent origination legume crops; pea, chickpea and lentil, and summarize the current state and potential of their respective crop wild relatives (CWR) for crop improvement.
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