The Role of Vegetable Genetic Resources in Nutrition Security and Vegetable Breeding

Abstract

Malnutrition, comprising undernutrition, micronutrient deficiency, and overnutrition, is more widespread than hunger per se and affects most nations around the globe. The diversity and the quality of food produced and consumed are decisive factors when addressing the triple burden of malnutrition. In this context, fruit, vegetables, and nuts are increasingly moving into the focus of the nutrition community. Agricultural policies and investments in agriculture are predominantly focused on staple food production, neglecting the economic and nutritional potential of fruit and vegetables. While global vegetables are well represented in genebanks around the globe, this is much less the case for traditional vegetables. Collecting efforts in hotspots of vegetable diversity in Africa and Asia are required to conserve this germplasm before it is being replaced by modern varieties. Home gardens, community seedbanks, and variety introduction through vegetable seed kits are ways how genebanks can link with the farming community to strengthen the informal seed sector. This in turn may result in more diverse production systems and increased consumption of fruit and vegetables. In the formal seed sector, vegetable breeders need access to a wide diversity of genetic resources, predominantly farmers’ varieties, landraces, and crop wild relatives. Genomics-assisted breeding is increasingly facilitating the introgression of favorable genes and quantitative trait loci (QTLs) with complex inheritance patterns from wild species into cultigens. This will lead to wider use of crop wild relatives in the development of resilient cultivars.

Plant Biodiversity and Genetic Resources Matter!

“…Several papers in this Special Issue have addressed genetic erosion aspects and provided suggestions and experiences regarding how this erosion can be stemmed for wild and cultivated biodiversity [8], CWR [3,21], wild food plants [19,20], vegetables [25], and forages [17].…”

“…It is crucial to conserve landraces and CWR of crops if we wish to retain sufficient genetic diversity for current and future plant breeding programs, and to develop resilient cultivars that can withstand the multiple biotic and abiotic challenges that are exacerbated by climate change [3,25]. However, public sector breeders in developing countries are still confronted with obstacles such as accessing germplasm across national borders and the lack of appropriate technologies and skills to exploit sets of germplasm accessions composed of landraces and CWR [41].…”

“…Examples of conservation activities that impact on the use of the genetic resources that have been covered in this Special Issue include the following: easy access to genetic resources increases the capacity of breeders to respond to climate change and the availability of appropriate technologies [41]; access to traditional knowledge on the use of wild plant species [27]; a systematic association-mapping of wheat varieties with SNP markers was successfully used to associate adult plant stripe rust resistance with specific rust races, and results can be used in marker-assisted selection [29]; the analysis of a local genetic panel of manna ash with a continental dataset allowed conclusions on the presence of a possible glacial refuge, and thus facilitates the collecting and use of more genetic diversity [38]; the systematic characterization of ancient grape germplasm in Cyprus allowed the discovery of so far unnoticed genetic diversity [35]; literature searches and conducting field surveys allowed the identification of unknown wild food plants in Kenya [20]; fact sheets promoted the use of traditional food plants in the South Pacific [26]; the exploitation of the local genetic diversity of traditional pea landraces in Greece is fundamental for conservation practices and crop improvement through breeding strategies [32]; the evaluation of maize landrace accessions under heat and drought stresses resulted in invaluable sources of genes/alleles for adaptation breeding [30]; the review of recent efforts that build evidence of the importance of wild food plants in selected countries, while providing examples of cross-sectoral cooperation and multi-stakeholder approaches, contributes to enhancing their sustainable use [19]; the advances in conventional and molecular breeding for the drought tolerance of conventional staple crops, and the introduction of drought-tolerant neglected and underutilized species into existing production systems has the potential to enhance the resilience of agricultural production under conditions of water scarcity [40]; the utilization of advanced phenotyping tools, coupled with high-throughput genotyping, will accelerate the use of genetic resources and fast-track the development of more resilient food crops for the future [24]; and genomics-assisted breeding is increasingly facilitating the introgression of favorable genes and quantitative trait loci from wild species into cultigens, and will lead to a wider use of crop wild relatives in the development of resilient cultivars [25].…”

“…Several papers highlight the importance of vegetables as well as traditional, underutilized and wild food plants for food and nutrition security in general [19,25], in pilot studies in Kenya [20], and on atolls in the South Pacific [26], including specific crops, such as Hairy Stork's Bill (Erodium crassifolium) [27], and the sister of the common pomegranate (Punica protopunica), the latter also having interesting medicinal properties [28]. A number of papers focus on the genetic diversity of specific crops or specific traits in a range of food crops for the benefit of plant breeding, such as genome-wide association mapping for stripe rust resistance in spring wheat [29], diversity studies for drought and heat stress in maize landraces [30], nitrogen fixation and water use efficiency in common bean landraces and cultivars in Honduras [31], species identification of Katsouni pea on Greek Islands [32], wild potato germplasm evaluation for starch content and nitrogen utilization efficiency [33], diversity, population structure and marker-trait association for 100-seed weight in a safflower (Carthamus tinctorius) germplasm panel [34], the composition of Cypriot grapevine varieties [35], species assignment, genetic diversity and phylogeographic relationships of wild germplasm of macadamia [36], genetic diversity and population structure of Rhododendron rex subsp.…”

“…In the context of public breeding programs in 18 developing countries, Galluzzi et al [41] analyze the specific role of genetic resources in breeding for climate change. The importance of vegetable genetic resources for nutrition security and vegetable breeding is highlighted in a paper by Ebert [25].…”