Status of the Ex Situ and In Situ Conservation of Brazilian Crop Wild Relatives of Rice, Potato, Sweet Potato, and Finger Millet: Filling the Gaps of Germplasm Collections

Abstract

This study presents the status of ex situ and in situ conservation for the crop wild relatives of rice, potato, sweet potato, and finger millet in Brazil, and the subsequent germplasm collection expeditions. This research is part of a global initiative entitled “Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change: Collecting, Protecting, and Preparing Crop Wild Relatives” supported by the Global Crop Diversity Trust. Species of the primary, secondary, and tertiary gene pools with occurrences reported in Brazil were included: Oryza alta Swallen, O. grandiglumis (Döll) Prod., O. latifolia Desv., O. glumaepatula Steud., Eleusine tristachya (Lam.) Lam., E. indica (L.) Gaertn., Solanum commersonii Dunal, S. chacoense Bitter, Ipomoea grandifolia (Dammer) O’Donell, I. ramosissima (Poir.) Choisy, I. tiliacea (Willd.) Choisy, I. triloba L., and I. cynanchifolia Meisn. The status of the ex situ and in situ conservation of each taxon was assessed using the gap analysis methodology, and the results were used to plan 16 germplasm collection expeditions. Seeds of the collected material were evaluated for viability, and the protocols for seed germination and cryopreservation were tested. The final conservation score, resulting from the gap analysis and including the average of the ex situ and in situ scores, resulted in a classification of medium priority of conservation for all the species, with the exception of I. grandifolia (high priority). The total accessions collected (174) almost doubled the total accessions of these crop wild relatives incorporated in Embrapa’s ex situ conservation system prior to 2015. In addition, accessions for practically absent species were collected for the ex situ conservation system, such as Ipomoea species, Eleusine indica, and Solanum chacoense. The methods used for dormancy breaking and low temperature conservation for the Oryza, Eleusine, and Ipomoea species were promising for the incorporation of accessions in the respective gene banks. The results show the importance of efforts to collect and conserve ex situ crop wild relatives in Brazil based on previous gap analysis. The complementarity with the in situ strategy also appears to be very promising in the country.

Wild relatives of potato (Solanum L. sec. Petota) poorly sampled and unprotected in Colombia

“…Activities of the project include inventory and prioritization of CWR, gap analysis to diagnose the state of ex situ and in situ conservation of CWR at the global and national levels, and collection missions in 25 countries (Eastwood et al., 2022). Successful collections of CWR under threat were carried out in Peru and Brazil, in some cases collecting germplasm without previous representation in the genebanks (Medeiros et al., 2021; Sotomayor et al., 2023). Conservationists developed effective sampling strategies and collection plans based on gap analysis, expert experience, reports of earlier collections, herbarium specimens, and passport data from genebanks.…”

Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change: A Synopsis of Coordinated National Crop Wild Relative Seed Collecting Programs across Five Continents

“…Though the global results are impressive, the impact at the national scale has arguably been even greater. For example, the CWR holdings in Embrapa, Brazil [ 50 ], and the Lebanese Agricultural Research Institute were doubled during the project period. In Nepal, the project expeditions resulted in the first CWR collections to be conserved in that country [ 51 ].…”