Societal Impact StatementGiven the rapidly increasing drought and temperature stresses associated with climate change, innovative approaches for food security are imperative. One understudied opportunity is using feral crops—plants that have escaped and persisted without cultivation—as a source of genetic diversity, which could build resilience in domesticated conspecifics. In some cases, however, feral plants vigorously compete with crops as weeds, challenging food security. By bridging historically siloed ecological, agronomic, and evolutionary lines of inquiry into feral crops, there is the opportunity to improve food security and understand this relatively understudied anthropogenic phenomenon.SummaryThe phenomenon of feral crops, that is, free‐living populations that have established outside cultivation, is understudied. Some researchers focus on the negative consequences of domestication, whereas others assert that feral populations may serve as useful pools of genetic diversity for future crop improvement. Although research on feral crops and the process of feralization has advanced rapidly in the last two decades, generalizable insights have been limited by a lack of comparative research across crop species and other factors. To improve international coordination of research on this topic, we summarize the current state of feralization research and chart a course for future study by consolidating outstanding questions in the field. These questions, which emerged from the colloquium “Darwins' reversals: What we now know about Feralization and Crop Wild Relatives” at the BOTANY 2021 conference, fall into seven categories that span both basic and applied research: (1) definitions and drivers of ferality, (2) genetic architecture and pathway, (3) evolutionary history and biogeography, (4) agronomy and breeding, (5) fundamental and applied ecology, (6) collecting and conservation, and (7) taxonomy and best practices. These questions serve as a basis for ferality researchers to coordinate research in these areas, potentially resulting in major contributions to food security in the face of climate change.
Brassica rapa is an annual species cultivated for centuries for food consumption and oil. Its wild form is a common weed in temperate climates around the world, including Argentina, interfering in more than 20 crops. The adoption of genetically modified (GM) and non-GM Brassica napus herbicide-resistant cultivars and the possibility of introgression with B. rapa gave rise to new weedy biotypes. In Argentina, in 2012, natural populations of transgenic (GM) glyphosate-resistant B. rapa were found and one of these populations also showed (non-GM) AHAS-inhibiting resistance. The study of the pleiotropic effects on fitness cost in this species could determine whether these resistances could persist in agricultural fields. The aim of the present study was to assess the effect of the glyphosate transgene (GT73) and AHAS Trp574Leu mutation on B. rapa vegetative and reproductive traits. Two trials were carried out, one with a homogenous genetic background and another with a different genetic background, both in two growing seasons. We found no differences in either trial between the resistant and susceptible biotypes in any of the fitness traits evaluated. It was also noted that in winter, the biotypes showed a better performance than plants growing in spring. Based on these results, glyphosate resistance and AHAS-inhibiting resistance are likely to persist in Brassica rapa populations even without the herbicide selection. This is in agreement with the area invaded by this weed in Argentina over the last ten years.
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