Domesticated species are impacted in unintended ways during domestication and breeding. Changes in the nature and intensity of selection impart genetic drift, reduce diversity, and increase the frequency of deleterious alleles. Such outcomes constrain our ability to expand the cultivation of crops into environments that differ from those under which domestication occurred. We address this need in chickpea, an important pulse legume, by harnessing the diversity of wild crop relatives. We document an extreme domestication-related genetic bottleneck and decipher the genetic history of wild populations. We provide evidence of ancestral adaptations for seed coat color crypsis, estimate the impact of environment on genetic structure and trait values, and demonstrate variation between wild and cultivated accessions for agronomic properties. A resource of genotyped, association mapping progeny functionally links the wild and cultivated gene pools and is an essential resource chickpea for improvement, while our methods inform collection of other wild crop progenitor species.

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Bioprospecting, a vital step in the pharmaceutical production process, is also one of the most controversial and socially complex aspects in the pharmaceutical industry. The current conceptual paper reviews and theorizes this controversial sector by laying out the key elements of social, political and economic conflict involved in bioprospecting, from the point of view of the diverse stakeholders involved in the activity. First, we discuss the bioprospecting phenomenon as a high-risk, initial-stage research and development (R&D) activity that involves ethical, legal and economic uncertainties. After describing these uncertainties, we show how they are exacerbated by the unique cognitive frames that the main actors in this area -private companies, socia actors, government and local activists, and environmental l communities -surrounding and rights norms, motives, the use in framing bioprospecting. Juxtaposing actors in this way allows an opening for potential dialogue among the different stakeholders, and we follow our exposition by sketching a model for increased cooperation. Our model highlights the unique contributions of each actor, suggesting that a socially responsible form of natural resource use can promote both local and global benefits. Lastly, we discuss how bioprospecting can be utilized as a key tool in ethnobiological conservation efforts by aiding local stakeholders in the creation of economic value for their traditional knowledge and environmental assets.

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