There is a pressing need to conserve plant diversity to prevent extinctions and to enable sustainable use of plant material by current and future generations. Here, we review the contribution that living collections and seed banks based in botanic gardens around the world make to wild plant conservation and to tackling global challenges. We focus in particular on the work of Botanic Gardens Conservation International and the Millennium Seed Bank of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, with its associated global Partnership. The advantages and limitations of conservation of plant diversity as both living material and seed collections are reviewed, and the need for additional research and conservation measures, such as cryopreservation, to enable the long-term conservation of ‘exceptional species’ is discussed. We highlight the importance of networks and sharing access to data and plant material. The skill sets found within botanic gardens and seed banks complement each other and enable the development of integrated conservation (linking in situ and ex situ efforts). Using a number of case studies we demonstrate how botanic gardens and seed banks support integrated conservation and research for agriculture and food security, restoration and reforestation, as well as supporting local livelihoods.

Enabling food security requires access to a broad range of genetic resources to facilitate crop breeding. This need is increased in a climate change scenario, which will require the production of novel crops adapted to new conditions. However, many major crops have reduced genetic diversity due to the genetic bottlenecks that they have experienced during their domestication and subsequent breeding. Crop wild relatives (CWRs) remain underexploited in plant breeding programmes, mostly because of the lack of knowledge of their cross-compatibility with crops. In this study, we use a combination of phylogenetic distance metrics, cytogenetic compatibility data (e.g. chromosome number and ploidy) and information about breeding systems to predict interspecific cross-compatibility between crop and wild species and hence identify crop wild phylorelatives (CWPs) (i.e. CWRs that can breed with the crop). We illustrate this concept using cultivated asparagus as a model by integrating previous cross-compatibility knowledge and CWR classifications into a phylogenetic framework reconstructed using available sequence data. Our approach aims to reinforce the use of the gene pool classification system of CWRs of Harlan and De Wet, since CWPs are estimated to belong to the secondary gene pool and non-CWPs to the tertiary gene pool. Identifying CWPs unlocks novel uses of genetic resources, although such data are available for less than half of the known CWRs (43.4% with sequence data and 32.5% with known ploidy). The need to conserve plants that provide or enhance provisioning ecosystem services, including CWRs, is clear if we are to rise to the global challenge of ensuring food security for all. However, basic knowledge about their conservation status is still lacking, with only c. 20% of CWRs assigned an IUCN red list assessment, 23% of which are Data Deficient (DD). Using the CWP classification presented here to define CWRs will contribute towards helping to prioritize CWRs for IUCN assessments and, where prioritised, conservation.

For millennia, humans have used plants and fungi, as foods, fuels, fibers, and medicines; and have developed techniques for improving their usefulness to our species, mostly through selection of desirable traits. With human populations forecast to rise, the availability of arable land likely to fall amid climate change and increasing urbanization, and modern communications technologies accelerating the dispersal of pathogens, further improvement is urgently needed. However, ensuring long-term resilience involves conservation of existing genetic diversity in addition to selection. New technologies, particularly those based on molecular biology, are increasingly driving conservation and improvement strategies. How to cite this article: Kersey PJ, Collemare J, Cockel C, et al. Selecting for useful properties of plants and fungi-Novel approaches, opportunities, and challenges. Plants, People,

Management methods to control or eradicate invasive alien species should be guided by research into their efficacy in relation to the target species as well as their wider effects on the community. Impatiens glandulifera Royle (Balsaminaceae) is an invasive alien species, which has spread rapidly across Europe and North America, particularly colonizing riverbanks, wet woodlands, and wastelands. The effectiveness of two mechanical control measures and their impacts on community plant species richness and diversity within the riparian zone of the urban river Brent, London, England, was assessed. Over 2 years, an experiment was performed across three sites that exhibited contrasting levels of invasion of I. glandulifera: high, moderate and low. The experiment involved three treatments on replicated plots at all three sites: pruning at 6‐week intervals, weeding at 6‐week intervals, and a control. The effects of these control measures were most clearly seen at the site with the highest level of invasion and, to a smaller extent, at the moderately invaded site. Weeding was more successful in controlling the species than pruning, and the greatest impact of these treatments on community plant species richness and diversity was only apparent after 2 years of the experiment. Although seedlings of 10 other alien species were found, there was no evidence that their presence on the plots was detrimental to native species during the experimental period. Three common native species each approached 10% cover on the weeded plots at the heavily invaded site by the end of the experiment: Poa annua, Rumex obtusifolius, and Urtica dioica. These assessments provide guidance for implementing mechanical control of I. glandulifera in riparian zones. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change Project set out to improve the diversity, quantity, and accessibility of germplasm collections of crop wild relatives (CWR). Between 2013 and 2018, partners in 25 countries, heirs to the globetrotting legacy of Nikolai Vavilov, undertook seed collecting expeditions targeting CWR of 28 crops of global significance for agriculture. Here, we describe the implementation of the 25 national collecting programs and present the key results. A total of 4587 unique seed samples from at least 355 CWR taxa were collected, conserved ex situ, safety duplicated in national and international genebanks, and made available through the Multilateral System (MLS) of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (Plant Treaty). Collections of CWR were made for all 28 targeted crops. Potato and eggplant were the most collected genepools, although the greatest number of primary genepool collections were made for rice. Overall, alfalfa, Bambara groundnut, grass pea and wheat were the genepools for which targets were best achieved. Several of the newly collected samples have already been used in pre-breeding programs to adapt crops to future challenges.