Biosafety and Environmental Releases of GM Crops in Mesoamerica: Context Does Matter

Acevedo, Francisca; Huerta, Elleli; Burgeff, Caroline

doi:10.1007/978-1-4614-6669-7_21

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…These hybridization events could lead to a decline in wild genetic diversity, as opposed to native semi-domesticated varieties in traditional Mesoamerican systems where there is evidence that domesticated genomes have formed not only by selection under domestication, but also by gene flow with other closely related populations and species ( Rendón-Anaya et al, 2017 ). For this reason, the wild-to-domesticated dynamics in terms of genetic diversity, reproductive biology, and gene flow should be well understood in the natural distribution of the species of interest, because extrapolating conclusions based on external or incomplete information about species complexes is inconsistent with the objectives of conservation and biosafety ( Beebe et al, 1997 ; Acevedo et al, 2016 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Mating System of the Wild-to-Domesticated Complex of Gossypium hirsutum L. Is Mixed

et al. 2018

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The domestication syndrome of many plants includes changes in their mating systems. The evolution of the latter is shaped by ecological and genetic factors that are particular to an area. Thus, the reproductive biology of wild relatives must be studied in their natural distribution to understand the mating system of a crop species as a whole. Gossypium hirsutum (upland cotton) includes both domesticated varieties and wild populations of the same species. Most studies on mating systems describe cultivated cotton as self-pollinated, while studies on pollen dispersal report outcrossing; however, the mating system of upland cotton has not been described as mixed and little is known about its wild relatives. In this study we selected two wild metapopulations for comparison with domesticated plants and one metapopulation with evidence of recent gene flow between wild relatives and the crop to evaluate the mating system of cotton’s wild-to-domesticated complex. Using classic reproductive biology methods, our data demonstrate that upland cotton presents a mixed mating system throughout the complex. Given cotton’s capacity for outcrossing, differences caused by the domestication process in cultivated individuals can have consequences for its wild relatives. This characterization of the diversity of the wild relatives in their natural distribution, as well as their interactions with the crop, will be useful to design and implement adequate strategies for conservation and biosecurity.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Mating System of the Wild-to-Domesticated Complex of Gossypium hirsutum L. Is Mixed

et al. 2018

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“…Mesoamerica has lost more than 80% of its native vegetation due to intensified agriculture in the last decades, with a recent et al, 2015). Therefore, efforts to frame the use and release of living modified organisms in Mesoamerica (Acevedo et al, 2016) and to protect the species and areas that include the genetic diversity of CWR taxa (DOF, 2012;MAGA, 2019) are of great importance in the region.…”

Section: Threats To Mesoamerican Cwr and Threat Patternsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extinction risk of Mesoamerican crop wild relatives

Goettsch

Urquiza-Haas

Koleff

et al. 2021

Plants People Planet

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Societal Impact Statement Crop wild relatives (CWR) are plant taxa closely related to crops and are a source of high genetic diversity that can help adapt crops to the impacts of global change, particularly to meet increasing consumer demand in the face of the climate crisis. CWR provide vital ecosystem services and are increasingly important for food and nutrition security and sustainable and resilient agriculture. They therefore are of major biological, social, cultural and economic importance. Assessing the extinction risk of CWR is essential to prioritise in situ and ex situ conservation strategies in Mesoamerica to guarantee the long‐term survival and availability of these resources for present and future generations worldwide. Summary Ensuring food security is one of the world's most critical issues as agricultural systems are already being impacted by global change. Crop wild relatives (CWR)—wild plants related to crops—possess genetic variability that can help adapt agriculture to a changing environment and sustainably increase crop yields to meet the food security challenge. Here we report the results of an extinction risk assessment of 224 wild relatives of some of the world's most important crops (i.e. chilli pepper, maize, common bean, avocado, cotton, potato, squash, vanilla and husk tomato) in Mesoamerica—an area of global significance as a centre of crop origin, domestication and of high CWR diversity. We show that 35% of the selected CWR taxa are threatened with extinction according to The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List demonstrates that these valuable genetic resources are under high anthropogenic threat. The dominant threat processes are land use change for agriculture and farming, invasive and other problematic species (e.g. pests, genetically modified organisms) and use of biological resources, including overcollection and logging. The most significant drivers of extinction relate to smallholder agriculture—given its high incidence and ongoing shifts from traditional agriculture to modern practices (e.g. use of herbicides)—smallholder ranching and housing and urban development and introduced genetic material. There is an urgent need to increase knowledge and research around different aspects of CWR. Policies that support in situ and ex situ conservation of CWR and promote sustainable agriculture are pivotal to secure these resources for the benefit of current and future generations.

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Recalcitrant maize: Conserving agrobiodiversity in the era of genetically modified organisms

Fenzi,

Foyer,

Boisvert

et al. 2023

Plants People Planet

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Societal Impact StatementThe problem of genetically modified maize contamination in Mexico is the result of both planned and unplanned consequences of scientific and political choices. We show how a risk management strategy based on the modernist dichotomy between “modern” and “native” has failed to protect Mexican landraces and has marginalized other forms of knowledge that are urgently needed to understand and support the fluidity of Mexican biocultural landscapes. Farmers' seed systems are a fundamental source of crop resilience and evolution. They can constitute safe pathways for creating new maize varieties able to withstand climate and societal changes.Summary In 2001, an alert on the contamination of Mexican maize landraces by genetically modified (GM) maize spurred new actions to conserve the world's biggest reservoir of maize genetic diversity. We analyze how the largest maize collection effort in Mexican history, and the definition of the conservation procedures employed in it, either involved or marginalized different approaches to this environmental problem. The article is grounded in the sociohistorical analysis of the controversy of GM maize contamination and brings together new historiographical perspectives on Mexican scientific and political interest in native maize. It also draws on ethnographic approaches, extended fieldwork, and analysis of data from Mexican government agencies. We show how different epistemological traditions have made the risk of GM maize contamination (in)visible and thereby generated normative choices. We illustrate how the GMO controversy brought the theme of native maize back onto the Mexican political and scientific agenda. The normativity that shaped the controversy in the 2000s influenced current knowledge and how the problem of GM maize introgression is still addressed today. The entanglements between biotechnology, native landraces, and farmers' practices are too dense to be “scientized” and kept separate to be made manageable as areas of purely technical “risk.” The result is a geography of maize infused with all sorts of temporalities and materiality, which escapes the bounds of technoscientific framings. This intricate environment‐making process calls for new collaborations among epistemic cultures to tackle the possible consequences of GMOs for agrobiodiversity, seed systems, and their resilience.

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Biosafety and Environmental Releases of GM Crops in Mesoamerica: Context Does Matter

Cited by 3 publications

References 7 publications

The Mating System of the Wild-to-Domesticated Complex of Gossypium hirsutum L. Is Mixed

The Mating System of the Wild-to-Domesticated Complex of Gossypium hirsutum L. Is Mixed

Extinction risk of Mesoamerican crop wild relatives

Recalcitrant maize: Conserving agrobiodiversity in the era of genetically modified organisms

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