SCIENCE@home

From wild to mild and back again: envisioning a new model of crop improvement strategies

Richard C. Pratt,M. Kantar,Nathan Fumia,Amol N. Nankar

Published 2024 in Frontiers in Horticulture

ABSTRACT

Climate change creates a leverage point in plant breeding. We must rethink the way we employ plant breeding, utilize genetic diversity, and prioritize edible plant production across the landscape. A long-term strategy to ‘redirect’ the process of crop domestication that prioritizes the generation of abiotic and biotic stress-tolerant cultivars is needed. A proposed neo-domestication strategy is presented as a case study. It entails the re-domestication of chile by retro-crossing of modern plant cultivars with landraces and a desert-adapted wild relative. An organized, collaborative effort could reintroduce stress tolerance genes that will render new cultivars more tolerant to challenges imposed by climate change. Purposeful populations generated using a broad spectrum of genetic diversity could also provide the basis for an evolutionary–participatory plant breeding process. The process must recognize the need for a paradigm shift in our resource allocation and breeding strategies. To succeed, a shared vision for neo-domestication of chile must recognize the importance of human cultural values and the need for sustained cooperation among stakeholders.

PUBLICATION RECORD

CITATION MAP

EXTRACTION MAP

CLAIMS

  • No claims are published for this paper.

CONCEPTS

  • No concepts are published for this paper.

REFERENCES

Showing 1-45 of 45 references · Page 1 of 1

CITED BY